/<7/^3.-3--S 


LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON.     N.    J. 


Presented  by 

Hoe  Widow  o 


■f  G-eoroe  Dwabin^k 


BL  60  .H55  1894 
Hill,  David  J. 
The  social  influence  of 
Christianity 


PRIVATE  LIBRARY  OF 

II.  NEVIfl  KERST, 

No. 


The  Social  Influence 

of  Christianity 


With  Special   Reference  to  Contemporary  Problems. 


BY 


DAVID   J.  'HILL,    LL.D., 

President  of  the   University  of  Rochester. 


THE   NEWTON   LECTURES  FOR   1887. 


Let  him  that  stole  steal  no  more  :  but  rather  let  him  labor,  working 
ivilh  his  hands  the  thing  which  is  good,  that  he  may  have  to  give  to 
him  that  needeth.  —  Saint  Paul. 


BOSTON  : 
SILVER,   BURDETT  &   COMPANY, 
110-112  Boylston  Street. 
1894. 


Copyright,  1888, 
By  Silver,  Burdett  &  Co. 


TO 

CATHARINE   J.    PACKER, 

THIS  VOLUME   IS   LOVINGLY   DEDICATED. 


PREFACE. 


This  volume  consists  of  eight  lectures  delivered  before  the 
Newton  Theological  Institution,  in  May,  1887,  at  the  invita- 
tion of  the  president  and  faculty,  and  through  the  liberality  of 
the  Hon.  J.  W.  Merrill.  The  lectures  are  now  published  at 
the  request  of  the  president,  faculty,  and  students,  and  consti- 
tute the  second  published  volume  of  "Newton  Lectures,11  the 
first  being  "The  Hebrew  Feasts,11  by  Professor  William  Henry 
Green,  d.d.,  ll.d.,  of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary. 

The  lecturer  was  permitted  to  supplement  his  general  prep- 
aration as  a  teacher  of  political  economy  and  sociology  during 
the  past  ten  years,  by  six  months  of  travel  and  observation  in 
the  principal  countries  of  central  and  southern  Europe  with 
these  lectures  constantly  in  view,  and  by  six  months  of  spe- 
cial reading  in  the  literature  collected  before  and  during  his 
journey. 

He  desires  to  make  public  acknowledgment  of  the  sustained 
interest  shown  by  all  who  attended  the  course  of  lectures,  and 
especially  of  the  personal  courtesy  and  hospitality  of  President 
Hovey  and  the  members  of  the  faculty  during  his  pleasant 
visit  at  Newton. 


V- 


CONTENTS. 


I.  What  is  Human  Society?    ...         .... 

II.  What  has  Christianity  done  for  Society? 

III.  Christianity  and  the  Problems  of  Labor  .     . 

IV.  Christianity  and  the  Problems  of  Wealth    . 
V.  Christianity  and  the  Problems  of  Marriage 

VI.  Christianity  and  the  Problems  of  Education 

VII.  Christianity  and  the  Problems  of  Legislation 

VIII.  Christianity  and  the  Problems  of  Repression 


PAGE 

9 

35 
65 
95 

127 

157 
187 
21 1 


[For    detailed    analysis   see    page    preceding    the   beginning    of    each 
lecture.] 


I. 

WHAT   IS    HUMAN   SOCIETY? 


WHAT   IS   HUMAN    SOCIETY? 


1.  Preliminary  Questions. 

2.  The  twofold  View  of  the  Sophists. 

I.  THE  NATURALISTIC  CONCEPTION  OF  SOCIETY. 

i.    Plato's  Theory. 

2.  Aristotle's  Theory. 

3.  Naturalistic  Doctrines  in  Modern  Times. 

(1)  Montesquieu;     (2)  Condorcet ;     (3)  Kant ;     (4) 
Quetelet;    (5)  Buckle. 

4.  Biological  Sociology. 

(1)  Spencer;    (2)  Schaeffle;    (3)  Espinas ;    (4)  Mul- 
ford. 

5.  Inadequacy  of  the  Naturalistic  Conception. 

II.  THE   IDEALISTIC   CONCEPTION   OF    SOCIETY. 

1 .  Rousseau's  Social  Contract. 

2.  The  Theocratic  Conception. 

3.  The  Kingdom  of  God. 

4.  Christian  Society. 

5.  The  Ideal  in  the  Formation  of  Society. 

III.    THE    SYNTHESIS    OF   THE  NATURAL  AND   THE 
IDEAL   IN    SOCIETY. 

1.  Society  founded  in  Human  Wants. 

2.  Society  modified  by  Human  Wills. 

3.  Society  perfected  through  Ideals. 

4.  Answer  to  the  question,  What  is  human  society? 


THE   SOCIAL   INFLUENCE   OF 
CHRISTIANITY. 


WHAT   IS   HUMAN   SOCIETY  ? 

i.  An  accurate  conception  of  the  nature  of  society- 
is  an  essential  prerequisite  to  any  valuable  discussion 
of  its  problems.  This  conception  may  be  obtained 
by  resolving  society  into  its  elementary  constituents 
and  discovering  the  forces  and  laws  by  which  these 
elements  are  united.  Human  society  is  composed  of 
individual  human  beings,  who  may  be  considered  as 
its  atomic  units.  The  process  of  analysis  is  very 
simple,  but  the  forces  of  social  synthesis  and  the 
laws  of  their  action  present  materials  of  great  com- 
plexity. Does  the  cause  of  association  lie  in  the 
human  individual,  or  docs  it  pertain  to  the  environ- 
ment in  which  individuals  are  placed?  Does  it 
originate  from  conscious  volition,  or  does  it  proceed 
from  organic  constitution  ?  Does  it  admit  of  volun- 
tary counteraction  and  resistance,  or  does  it  produce 
its  results  by  necessity  ?  These  are  questions  which 
must  be  answered  before  we  can  solve  any  social 
problem  whatever  ;  for,  if  the  will  of  man  is  not  in 


IO  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

any  sense  the  cause  of  society,  it  is  difficult  to 
imagine  how  it  can  transform,  or  even  slightly 
modify,  the  social  structure. 

These  preliminary  questions  reduce  themselves  to 
one,  which  may  be  formulated  thus  :  What  is  the 
relation  of  individuals  to  the  social  whole  ;  is  it  that 
of  living  parts  united  by  natural  laws  into  a  greater 
organism,  or  is  it  that  of  voluntary  members  freely 
choosing  their  form  of  association  ?  More  briefly 
still,  Is  society  a  natural  organism,  or  is  it  a  voluntary 
group  formed  by  contract  ? 

2.  We  may  trace  from  a  great  antiquity  two  dis- 
tinct and  opposing  conceptions  created  in  answer  to 
this  question.  The  Greek  Sophists,  who  raised 
nearly  all  the  questions  which  men  have  since  been 
trying  to  answer,  divided  the  world  into  two  parts  : 
one  ruled  by  the  inflexible  laws  of  nature,  the  other 
governed  by  the  freewill  of  man.1  They  considered 
a  part  of  our  human  laws  as  arbitrary  or  conven- 
tional ;  others,  as  derived  from  the  constitution  of 
man,  and  hence  the  projection  of  inanimate  nature, 
independent  of  volition  and  wholly  unalterable. 
Upon  this  fundamental  distinction  have  been  erected 
two  different  theories  of  society,  which  we  may  des- 
ignate as  the  Naturalistic  Theory  and  the  Idealistic 
Theory. 

I. 

i.  Although  Plato  is  best  known  as  an  idealist,  his 
social  theory  belongs  to  the  naturalistic  type.     For 

1  For  this  doctrine  of  the   Sophists,  see   Plato's   Laws,  889.      The  best 
translation  is  Jouett's. 


WHAT  IS  HUMAN  SOCIETY?  \  \ 

him  society  is  a  product  of  nature,  a  creature  of 
instinct  and  environment.  Organic  need  is  the  de- 
termining cause  of  social,  as  it  is  of  animal,  organi- 
zation.2 The  division  of  labor  in  the  sphere  of 
industrial  production  was  fully  understood  by  Plato, 
and  its  origin  was  referred  to  the  diversity  of  natural 
powers  and  aptitudes.  A  state,  he  taught,  is  a  liv- 
ing body,  similar  to  an  individual  organism.  Its 
different  classes  are  like  the  various  faculties  of  an 
individual  being,  and  it  is  endowed  with  a  soul  —  an 
emanation  of  the  universal  reason.  Its  growth  and 
decay,  its  -diseases  and  its  conflicts  of  function,  are 
similar  to  those  of  a  living  man.  But  as  nature  is 
the  creation  of  God,  so  also  is  society.  As  there  is 
an  ideal  for  the  individual  man,  whose  highest  attain- 
ment is  perfect  virtue,  so  there  is  an  ideal  for  the 
State,  the  perfect  republic.  This  ideal  Plato  at- 
tempted to  picture.  It  is  a  community  in  which  the 
wise  govern,  in  which  virtue,  as  he  conceived  it,  is 
universally  cultivated  by  the  union  of  the  best  and 
the  elimination  of  the  base,  and  yet  involving  the 
destruction  of  the  family  and  its  affections,  the  per- 
petuation of  the  militant  spirit,  and  the  laudation  of 
a  narrow  nationalism.  This  most  visionary  of  ideal- 
ists is  still  the  most  radical  of  realists.  The  members 
of  the  social  body  are  wholly  devoid  of  spontaneity. 
The  realization  of  the  ideal  must  come  from  God 
alone,  whose  agent  is  the  wise  man  clothed  with 
power.     Little  did  Plato  dream  that  this  "  wise  man  " 

2  For  Plato's  ideas  on  the  nature  of  society,  see  his  Republic,  translated 
by  Jowett. 


12  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

was  hoped  for  and  expected  by  the  Hebrew  people, 
the  Deliverer  and  Messiah,  who  should  bring  to 
earth,  not  the  narrow  national  supremacy  desired  by 
both  Plato  and  the  Hebrews,  but  the  perfect  king- 
dom for  which  the  world  was  waiting. 

2.  Aristotle  approaches  the  question  of  the  nature 
of  society  with  all  of  Plato's  realism,  but  without  his 
ideal  tendencies.  For  Aristotle  the  State  is  the 
product  of  nature,  and  he  proceeds  to  study  it  from 
a  natural  point  of  view.3  He  points  out  an  impor- 
tant fact,  that  the  individual  cannot  exist  'n  isola- 
tion. He  finds  the  social  unit  not  in  the  individual, 
but  in  the  pair,  the  family.  But  this  unit  is  not  an 
atom;  it  is  composite;  it  is  already  an  organism,  a 
living  molecule  whose  parts  could  not  subsist  alone. 
This  is  a  fertile  conception.  It  draws  society  within 
the  boundaries  of  biology.  Society  is  no  longer  a 
dead  thing,  but  a  living  being.  Since  it  is  a  living 
organism,  it  is  subjected  to  the  laws  of  birth  and 
death,  of  growth  and  dissolution,  which  rule  all  life. 
Change  is  its  essential  condition.  Every  atte  ipt, 
then,  to  impose  upon  it  an  immutable  constiti  ion 
must  prove  chimerical.  Societies  differ  according  to 
their  times  and  according  to  their  environments. 
No  constitution  can  be  adapted  to  all  peoples. 
Again,  no  living  being  is  composed  of  wholly  simi- 
lar parts.  Society  ought  to  be  composed  of  parts 
which  are  separated  from  one  another  by  differences. 
This  is  why  the  family,  Aristotle's  social  element,  is 

8  For  Aristotle's   philosophy  of   society,   see   his  Politics,  translated   by 
Jowett. 


J 


WHAT  IS  HUMAN  SOCIETY?  I  3 

formed  of  heterogeneous  constituents  :  man,  woman, 
and  children.  That  difference  is  the  condition  of 
their  union.  Here  is  not  only  diversity,  but  subordi- 
nation, gradation  of  power,  a  scale  of  authority  ;  the 
woman  obeying  the  man,  and  the  child  the  woman. 
In  this  rudimentary  society  is  the  beginning  of  gov- 
ernment. The  father  becomes  the  patriarch,  the 
patriarch  the  king.  Thus  is  developed  the  social 
organism.  Nature  ordains  these  differences,  from 
them  grows  the  equilibrium  of  the  whole  people ; 
and  so  society  exists,  not  by  convention  and  choice, 
but  by  inherent  constitution  and  necessity.  Each 
individual  finds  himself  at  birth  a  part  of  a  social 
whole  which  neither  he  nor  any  other  man  has  cre- 
ated. Without  this  preexisting  environment  he 
would  not  be  what  he  is.  He  is,  then,  himself  the 
creature  of  society  rather  than  its  creator.  Its  lan- 
guage, its  traditions,  its  customs,  its  laws,  combine 
to  shape  him  and  to  determine  his  individuality. 
How  fully  this  idea  was  accepted  by  the  Greeks  is 
evident  from  the  value  they  put  upon  culture  as 
essential  to  the  making  of  a  man,  and  also  from  their 
word  lShottjs,  which  first  meant  a  "  private  man," 
then  a  "clumsy  fellow,"  and  at  last  a  "fool,"  an 
"  idiot." 

We  may  summarize  the  whole  doctrine  of  pagan 
antiquity  as  being  in  its  final  conclusions  a  naturalis- 
tic and  organic  theory  of  society.  Without  arriving  at 
the  definite  biological  conception  that  prevails  in  mod- 
ern sociology,  Greek  thought  distinctly  grasped  the 
idea  that  society  is  created  by  forces  outside  of  man 


14  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

himself,  yet  operating  through  him  as  their  necessary 
organ,  thus  producing  not  merely  an  aggregate  but  a 
living  organism. 

3.  To  follow  in  detail  the  history  of  social  theories 
would  certainly  prove  wearisome,  and  probably  would 
efface  the  memory  of  the  most  important  outlines  by 
filling  the  mind  with  insignificant  refinements.  And 
yet  we  cannot  do  justice  to  the  naturalistic  school 
without  a  passing  notice  of  the  progress  it  has  made. 

(1)  In  Montesquieu's  epoch-making  "  Spirit  of  the 
Laws"  we  find  the  naturalistic  conception  prevailing.4 
He  regards  the  organization  of  society  as  reposing 
less  on  human  ideas  than  on  instinctive  impulsions 
—  such  as  the  sense  of  dependence  on  others,  the 
need  of  aliments,  the  sexual  attachment,  and  the 
sympathetic  inclinations.  Though  the  State  is  for 
the  great  French  jurist  the  work  of  mind,  its  roots 
reach  down  into  physical  conditions  out  of  which  it 
is  developed.  The  laws  express  this  origin  and  are 
but  the  reflex  of  the  natural  environment. 

(2)  Condorcet  emphasized  this  tendency  of  thought 
by  proposing  that  the  methods  of  the  physical  sci- 
ences be  applied  also  to  moral  and  social  phenomena.5 
He  taught  that  human  progress  is  subject  to  physical 
laws  and  capable  of  even  mathematical  treatment. 
To  measure  social  phenomena  in  order  to  discover 
their  laws  ;  to  draw  from  the  knowledge  of  their  laws 
the  foreknowledge  of   future  phenomena ;    to  found 

4  Montesquieu,  Esprit  des  Lois,  Iivre  i,  chapitre  ii. 

0  Condorcet,  Esquisse  d'un  Tableau  historique   des   progres  de  l'Esprit 
Humain. 


WHAT  IS  HUMAN  SOCIETY?  I  5 

upon  that  foreknowledge  combinations  and  preven- 
tions which  would  secure  the  amelioration  of  the 
human  race,  —  such  was  Condorcet's  doctrine  of  the 
task  and  the  power  of  social  science. 

(3)  Although  Immanuel  Kant  made  absolute  free- 
dom the  masterpiece  of  his  metaphysics,  he  regarded 
the  world  of  phenomena  as  ruled  by  invariable  laws. 
In  the  marvelous  harmonies  of  nature  he  discerned  a 
secret  conspiracy  of  forces  which  is,  indeed,  mechani- 
cal, but  at  the  same  time  the  expression  of  a  superior 
will.  Human  actions  were  for  him  determined  in 
great  part  by  general  laws  of  nature.  He  thought 
that,  as  "  the  laws  of  the  variation  of  the  atmosphere 
are  constant,  though  no  particular  can  be  foreseen  at 
a  given  point,  and  in  the  mass  they  occasion  in  a 
uniform  manner  and  without  interruption  the  growth 
of  plants,  the  course  of  streams,  and  all  the  other 
occurrences  of  the  natural  economy,"  so  the  social 
phenomena  —  births  and  deaths,  marriages  and 
divorces  —  are  subject  to  natural  laws.6  We  may 
trace  similar  ideas  in  the  writings  of  Fichte  and 
Hegel,  who  gave  them  abundant  illustration  mingled 
with  the  vagaries  of  a  fanciful  subjectivism,  and  espe- 
cially in  those  of  Herder,  who  first  applied  the  prin- 
ciple of  natural  evolution  to  history  and  claimed  for 
it  the  character  of  an  exact  science. 

(4)  Very  important  additions  were  made  to  social 
science  by  the  Belgian  mathematician,  Ouetelet,  who 
by  measurements  and  statistics  sought  to  demon- 
strate   the    uniformity    of    social    phenomena.       His 

0  Kant,  Allgemeine  Naturgeschichte. 


I  6  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

methods  are  too  technical  for  popular  exposition,  but 
he  may  be  accorded  the  distinction  of  having  raised 
statistics  to  the  dignity  of  a  science.  His  "  Social 
Physics  "  is  a  memorable  contribution  to  the  science 
of  man  and  of  society.  His  tables  show  that  acts  of 
the  most  personal  and  apparently  spontaneous  nature 
are  measurable  by  general  rules.  For  example,  the 
number  of  murders  committed  in  France  in  six  suc- 
cessive years,  from  1826  to  1831  inclusive,  shows  a 
very  slight  variation  ;  and  the  proportion  of  the 
instruments  of  destruction  employed  is  about  the 
same  from  year  to  year.  Thus,  for  five  successive 
years  the  number  of  murders  committed  with  a  gun 
or  pistol  does  not  vary  more  than  eight,  the  absolute 
numbers  being  56,  64,  60,  61,  and  57.  Such  observa- 
tions led  Quetelet  to  maintain  that  "society  encloses 
in  itself  the  germ  of  the  crimes  that  are  committed. 
It  is  society  itself,  in  a  certain  sense,  that  prepares 
them,  and  the  criminal  is  only  the  instrument  who 
executes  them.  The  social  state,  then,  supposes  a 
certain  order  of  crimes,  which  result  as  a  necessary 
consequence  from  its  organization."  7  I  do  not  pause 
to  criticize  either  the  logic  or  the  ethics  of  this  rea- 
soning, but  note  it  as  a  stage  in  the  development  of 
sociology. 

(5)  Buckle  has  attempted  the  construction  of  a 
history  of  civilization  on  the  assumption  "  that  the 
moral  actions  of  men  are  the  product,  not  of  their 
volition,  but  of  their  antecedents."     Social  progress, 

7  Quetelet,  Physique  Sociale  ;  ou,  Essai  sur  lc  Developpement  des  Facultes 
de  l'Homme. 


WHAT  IS  HUMAN  SOCIETY?  I  J 

he  says,  is  "the  result  of  large  and  general  causes 
which,  working  upon  the  aggregate  of  society,  pro- 
duce certain  consequences  without  regard  to  the 
volition  of  those  particular  men  of  whom  the  society 
is  composed."8  These  "large  and  general  causes" 
are  "climate,  food,  soil,  and  the  general  aspect  of 
nature."  Here  volition  is  absolutely  excluded  as  a 
factor  of  progress.  Quetelet  explains  social  phe- 
nomena as  produced  through  human  volition,  but 
Buckle  takes  the  higher  ground  that  human  volition 
is  wholly  excluded  from  effecting  social  changes. 
He  was  clearly  a  more  loyal  determinist  than  he 
was  a  faithful  observer. 

4.  It  has  been  reserved  for  our  age  to  erect  a  com- 
plete sociology  upon  a  purely  naturalistic  basis,  treat- 
ing society  as  a  natural  growth,  a  veritable  organism 
in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word,  as  little  dependent 
upon  human  volition  as  any  example  in  the  animal 
series. 

(1)  For  Herbert  Spencer,  sociology  is  simply  an 
extension  of  biology.9  He  has  come  upon  societies 
long  before  arriving  at  man  in  the  order  of  evolution. 
Every  individual  animal,  he  affirms,  is  a  society,  com- 
posed of  living  constituents.  The  individuality  of 
an  animal,  far  from  excluding  that  of  its  component 
elements,  supposes  and  requires  it.  Organic  compo- 
sition is  simply  a  union  of  living  parts  into  more 
extended  living  wholes.     Man  is  an  individual  only  in 

8  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in  England. 

9  Spencer's  Illustrations  of  Universal  Progress,  essay  on  The  Social 
Organism  ;  and  Principles  of  Sociology. 


1 8  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

a  relative  sense.     He  is  really  a  society  of  smaller 
individuals.     His  unity  is  the  result  of  their  organi- 
zation.    He  is  thus  either  identical  with  them  or  a 
result  of  their  combination.     When  dissolution  takes 
place  he  is  no  more.     These  constituents  have  been 
differentiated  and  specialized  so  that  each  class  has 
its  own  function.     Human    society  is  to    individual 
men  what  a  single  man  is  to  the  living  cells  of  his 
body.     It  is  more  than  an  aggregate,  it  is  a  veritable 
organism.     It  is  not  formed  by  voluntary  association 
any  more  than  an  animal  body  is,  but  by  the  uncon- 
scious grouping  of  individual  men  acting  according 
to    the    laws    of    their  nature.      Human    society    is, 
therefore,  simply  an  "episode  of  universal  evolution," 
as  necessary  as  a  crystal  and  as  little  the  work  of  will. 
(2)     Spencer's  principal    difficulty    in    completing 
the  analogy  between  society  and  an  animal  organ- 
ism is  thus  expressed  by  himself  :  "  The  parts  of  an 
animal  form  a  concrete  whole ;   but  the    parts  of   a 
society  form  a  whole   that    is    discrete.     While   the 
living  units  composing  the  whole  are  bound  together 
in  close  contact  in  the  animal,  the  living  units  com- 
posing society  are  free,  not  in  contact,  and  more  or 
less  widely  dispersed."     Spencer's  attempts  to  explain 
away  this  disparity  are  not  so  successful  as  those  of 
the  German  sociologist,  Schaeffle,  in  his  "  Structure 
and   Life  of  the  Social  Body."     In   that   exhaustive 
work,  the  learned  author  shows  that  in  everv  animal 
organism  there  is  an  intercellular   substance,  which 
is   not  composed  of    the  living  cells,  but   acts   as   a 
means  of  separation  and  communication  between  them. 


WHAT  IS  HUMAN  SOCIETY?  1 9 

The  discontinuity  of  the  parts  of  the  social  body  is 
not,  therefore,  a  fatal  objection  to  its  being  con- 
sidered as  an  organism,  since  this  is  quite  in  analogy 
with  the  structure  of  animal  bodies.  The  roads, 
railways,  and  telegraphic  lines  of  human  society  serve 
to  bring  its  constituents  into  practical  coherence,  as 
the  nerves  of  sensation  do  in  the  animal  body.  That 
these  were  a  late  development  is  quite  in  analogy 
with  biological  history,  in  which  the  formation  of  a 
nervous  system  marks  an  advanced  stage  of  animal 
evolution. 

(3)  The  finishing  touch  to  the  naturalistic  theory 
seems  to  have  been  given  by  the  French  zoologist, 
Espinas,  who,  in  his  "  Animal  Societies,"  discovers  the 
necessity  and  the  fact  of  association  in  the  lowest 
orders  of  the  animal  creation,  and  supplies  many  data 
in  tracing  the  evolution  of  human  society  from 
the  rudimentary  social  life  of  the  inferior  animals. 
"  No  living  being,"  says  Espinas,  "  is  alone.  The 
animals  in  particular  sustain  numerous  relations  with 
the  existences  which  surround  them  ;  and,  without 
speaking  of  those  which  live  in  permanent  commerce 
with  their  kind,  almost  all  are  constrained  by  bio- 
logical necessities  to  contract,  though  it  be  for  a  brief 
period,  an  intimate  union  with  some  other  individual 
of  their  species."  10 

(4)  Thus  the  lowest  forms  of  life  and  human 
society  are  connected  as  products  of  natural  forces 
operating  under  a  law  of  evolution.  Society  is,  then, 
the   greatest    of   animals.     But    we   are   led   a   step 

10  Espinas,  Des  Societes  Animates. 


20         SOCIAL  INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

beyond  this.  In  his  book  on  "The  Nation,"  the 
\  late  Dr,  Mulford  says  :  "  The  physical  organism  is 
determined  in  itself  by  a  law  of  necessity,  as  the 
tree  which  cannot  be  other  than  it  is  ;  the  ethical 
organism  is  determined  in  a  law  of  freedom,  which 
is  the  condition  of  moral  action.  .  .  .  The  conditions 
of  history  presume  the  being  of  the  nation  as  a 
moral  organism.  History  is  not  a  succession  of 
separate  events  and  actions,  but  a  development  in  a 
moral  order,  and  in  the  unity  and  continuity  of  a 
life  which  moves  on  unceasingly,  as  some  river  in  its 
unbroken  current.  It  is  only  as  the  nation  is  an 
organism  that  this  unity  and  continuity  is  manifest 
in  it,  and  as  a  moral  organism  that  this  moral  order 
is  confirmed  in  it."  n  Dr.  Mulford  then  adds  :  "The 
nation  is  a  moral  personality."  So  it  seems  that  a 
society  is  not  simply  a  great  animal,  but  a  great 
person.  All  this  may  be  very  true,  but  I  cannot 
resist  the  feeling  that  in  some  way  we  have  passed 
out  of  the  sphere  of  science  into  a  cloudland  of 
mythology,  when  the  nation  is  endowed  with  person- 
ality. If  we  have  shrunk  from  Auguste  Comte's 
apotheosis  of  Humanity  as  the  Supreme  Being,  how 
shall  we  treat  this  "  moral  person  "  to  whom  Dr. 
Mulford's  speculative  mind  has  introduced  us  ?  How 
august  and  majestic  this  "moral  person  "  must  be,  to 
whom  we  all  stand  in  the  relation  of  microscopic  cells 
to  a  human  body  !  Has  biology,  then,  a  new  religion  ? 
But  the  moment  I  try  to  regain  my  own  sense  of 
personality,  which  seems  swallowed  up  in  this  "  moral 

11  E.  Mulford's  The  Nation,  chap.  i. 


WHAT  IS  HUMAN  SOCIETY?  2  1 

person,"  I  find  myself  in  trouble.  I  do  not  see  how 
a  person  can  be  composed  of  other  persons.  He 
would  be  a  congress,  not  a  person.  If  a  person  can- 
not be  composed  of  other  persons,  then  this  "  moral 
person,"  which  society  is  said  to  be,  is  either  not  a 
person  at  all,  or  else  is  a  person  apart  from  its  con- 
stituents, individual  men.  In  the  latter  case  we  have 
a  new  divinity  who  is  a  separate  personal  being,  the 
soul  of  the  nation.  This  brings  us  back  to  Plato. 
But  if  a  person  cannot  be  composed  solely  of  other 
organisms,  then  I,  as  a  person,  am  something  apart 
from  the  constituent  cells  that  form  my  body.  I 
am  a  society  plus  personality.  Now,  admitting  that 
society  is  an  organism,  that  is,  made  up  of  other 
organisms,  there  is  something  in  society  that  is  not 
organism,  the  individual  personalities  that  inhabit  the 
constituent  organisms  themselves.  Here  we  come 
upon  a  great  truth.  It  is  that  the  organic  theory  of 
society  leaves  out  of  account  this  element  of  person- 
ality that  belongs  to  every  human  individual.  As 
for  Dr.  Mulford's  "  moral  person,"  that  is  but  the 
creature  of  the  power  of  abstraction.  It  is  the 
personification,  merely,  of  the  social  bond  — ■  the 
mythologizing  tendency  that  peopled  the  Pantheon 
with  creatures  of  the  fancy,  alive  in  the  nineteenth 
century  and  creating  a  national  divinity.  This  "  moral 
person"  can  nowhere  be  found,  except  in  the  individual 
men  of  the  nation.  But  each  of  these  men  con- 
sciously knows  in  himself  a  personality  that  is  neither 
the  sum  nor  the  product  of  his  component  parts.  He 
is  an  organism  plus  a  person.  More  precisely,  he  is 
a  person  in  an  organism. 


2  2  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE   OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

(5)  Admitting  the  truth  of  the  naturalistic  theory 
of  society,  as  far  as  it  goes,  except  the  completeness 
of  it,  we  seem  to  have  missed  some  important  factor. 
That  factor  is  personality.  However  we  may  doubt 
the  personality  of  Dr.  Mulford's  "  moral  person," 
we  cannot  doubt  that  we  ourselves  are  persons. 
The  question,  then,  is  :  What  have  persons  contri- 
buted to  the  constitution  of  society,  beyond  what 
natural  forces  have  contributed  ?  The  naturalistic 
sociology  is  merely  one  of  observation  and  induction. 
It  can  observe  and  report  social  facts.  It  cannot  do 
more.  It  cannot  explain  progress,  which  is  the  one 
preeminently  important  social  phenomenon.  It  can- 
not determine,  by  its  purely  physical  methods,  what 
ought  to  be,  or  that  anything  "  ought  to  be.  "  It  is 
utterly  powerless  to  solve  any  social  problem,  because 
its  fundamental  postulate  is  that  the  will  and  intellect 
of  man  have  no  initiative  power,  either  to  create  or 
transform  society.  As  for  social  responsibility,  there 
can  be  none  for  the  naturalistic  theory.  All  is 
determined  by  natural  necessity,  and,  upon  this 
assumption,  "  Whatever  is,  is  right." 


<K 


11. 


1.  The  missing  factor  in  the  naturalistic  concep- 
tion of  society  is  human  personality.  Man  is  a  force 
other  than  physical  nature,  conscious  of  himself  and 
of  his  power,  reacting  upon  and  transforming  his  envi- 
ronment, partly  its  master  and  not  wholly  its  crea- 
ture.     This    is    the    assumption   of    Rousseau,  who, 


WHAT  IS  HUMAN  SOCIETY?  23 

though  not  without  predecessors  in  proclaiming  this 
truth,  is  its  most  celebrated  modern  advocate  among 
social  theorists.     Modern  republicanism  is  a  political 
movement,  based  on  the  dignity  and  essential   free- 
dom of  human  nature,  on  the  fact   and  the   potency 
of   personality.       It    is    incompatible  with    pure    and 
absolute  naturalism,  which  teaches  the  doctrine  that 
"  might  makes  right  "   under   the   milder  formula  of 
the  "  struggle  for  existence  and  the  survival  of  the 
fittest."     Rousseau  is  the  philosopher  of  republican- 
ism,     He   assumes  certain  inherent  and   inalienable 
rights  in  man  ;  that  is,  his  possession  of  personality, 
without  which  he  could  not  have  rights,  and  his  ethi- 
cal nature,  without  which  he  could  not   know  them. 
Rousseau  conceives  society  as  having  been  instituted 
by  a  "  social  contract,"  a  compact  voluntarily  formed 
by  free  agents,  in  order  to   secure  the  protection  of 
their  rights  by  union  and  reciprocity.     Their  primary 
equality,  their  personal  freedom,  and  their  pursuit  of 
an  ideal  are  all  involved  in  this  theory.12     But  Rous- 
seau embarrassed  the  truth  with   cumbrous  impedi- 
menta of  error.     The  "state  of  nature  "  is  for  him  an 
atomistic  condition  of   existence,  in  which   men  are 
imagined  as  wandering  in  isolation,  without  interrela- 
tions, without  institutions,  and  without  laws.      It  has 
been  easy  for  the  naturalistic  school   to  show  that 
such   a  condition  of    human    life    is    impossible,  and 
such  historical  critics  as  Sir  Henry  Maine  and  such 
political  theorists  as   Bluntschli  have   rejected  it  as 
not  only  unhistoric  but  utterly  fanciful.     To  refute 

12 Rousseau,  Coutrat  Social,  livre  i,  chapitre  iv. 


2\         SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Rousseau's  doctrine  of  the  origin  of  society,  how- 
ever, is  by  no  means  to  show  that  voluntary  contract 
has  not  been  a  transforming  element  in  social  pro- 
gress. Society  is  not  the  creation  of  a  day,  but  the 
growth  of  centuries.  History  shows  that  men  have 
acted  in  the  formation  of  new  societies  and  in  the 
reconstruction  of  old  ones  under  the  guidance  of  an 
ideal  whose  abstract  formula  is  voluntary  contract. 
I  believe  that  Rousseau  is  correct  in  maintaining 
that  men  have  made  society  what  it  is  by  following  a 
pattern  that  was  an  idea  before  it  was  a  reality. 

2.  If  we  care  to  retrace  the  idealistic  conception  of 
society  to  its  source,  we  shall  find  its  origin  among 
the  ancient  Hebrews.  The  theocracy  instituted  by 
Moses,  a  kingdom  without  a  human  king,  a  common- 
wealth built  on  worship,  was  held  together  by  the  alle- 
giance of  the  people  ;  and,  while  its  constitution  was 
divinely  ordained,  membership  in  it  was  a  voluntary 
adherence.  Moses  erected  a  moral  ideal,  established 
a  ceremonial  to  give  it  vitality,  and  appealed  to  men 
to  realize  it  by  submitting  to  theocratic  laws.  Apos- 
tasy was  always  possible,  and  sometimes  chosen. 
The  Hebrew  commonwealth,  in  its  beginning,  was 
essentially  a  form  of  association  based  on  voluntary 
recognition  of  a  moral  ideal.  It  never  lost  this  char- 
acter. The  Judges  served  to  give  personality  and 
form  to  the  moral  and  religious  union  of  the  people, 
but  they  could  not  unify  and  concentrate  the  Hebrew 
nation.  After  the  loss  of  nationality,  the  political 
feebleness  of  the  commonwealth  in  the  midst  of 
powerful  monarchies    was  keenly  felt.       Samuel  be- 


WHAT  IS  HUMAN  SOCIETY?  2$ 

came  virtual  king  of  Israel,  a  king  who  ruled  the 
conscience  and  swayed  the  whole  moral  nature  of  his 
people.  "  He  seems  to  have  entertained  the  magnifi- 
cent but  impracticable  conception,"  says  Dr.  J.  H. 
Allen,  "  that  the  real  and  acknowledged  sovereign  of 
Israel  should  be  the  invisible  Divinity  and  Protector, 
whose  arm  had  guarded  the  nation  in  so  many  perils, 
whose  Spirit  had  from  the  first  commissioned  and 
inspired  its  faithful  men  ;  and  that  the  actual  ruler 
should  be  only,  as  it  were,  a  regent,  or  viceroy,  of 
this  unseen  sovereign."  13  Accordingly,  he  erected 
into  the  permanence  and  power  of  an  institution  the 
prophetic  function,  by  the  establishment  of  the 
"  Schools  of  the  Prophets."  Out  of  this  institution 
of  prophecy  came  those  predictions  and  expectations 
of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  the  spiritual  sovereign,  who 
should  be  at  once  king  and  deliverer,  the  realized 
hope  of  Israel.  No  doubt  it  was  with  heavy  heart, 
made  heavier  by  the  disappointments  that  followed, 
that  Samuel  saw  the  necessity  of  choosing  a  human 
king.  The  king  was  appointed  and  Samuel's  fears 
were  realized.  Thus  the  theocracy  that  had  been  a 
fact  with  Moses  and  a  reminiscence  with  Samuel, 
became  for  the  prophets  a  splendid  dream  of  the 
future.  The  throne  never  ceased  to  feel  the  power 
of  the  school.  Exposure  and  denunciation  of  wrong, 
exposition  and  proclamation  of  justice,  even  interfer- 
ence with  the  royal  counsels  and  the  authoritative 
dictation  of  policy,  became  the  functions  of  the 
prophets,  who  continually  voiced  forth   and   empha- 

13  J.  H.  Allen's  Hebrew  Men  and  Times,  chap.  iii. 


2  6  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

sized  the  ideals  of  the  theocracy.  "  Both  in  their 
own  and  in  the  popular  belief,  they  were  in  the 
strictest  sense  ambassadors  and  representatives,  to 
speak  before  the  nation  messages  from  the  invisible 
and  dread  majesty  of  its  King." 

3.  Out  of  that  "goodly  fellowship  of  the  prophets" 
came  the  Messianic  predictions  which  rendered  possi- 
ble the  mission  of  Christ's  forerunner.  "  The  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  at  hand  !  "  cried  John  in  the  wil- 
derness. He  came  not  from  books  and  circles  of 
scholars,  as  if  his  message  were  a  discovery  of  learn- 
ing ;  not  from  courts  and  councils,  as  if  it  were  an 
induction  gathered  from  political  policies,  but  from 
the  solitudes  of  the  desert,  as  if  to  announce  a  proc- 
lamation from  God  himself.  Christ  appeared,  to 
fulfill  his  words  and  interpret  their  meaning.  "  My 
kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,"  he  said,  yet  "  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  within  you."  It  is  a  kingdom  for 
this  world,  though  not  of  it.  He  taught  his  disciples 
to  pray  :  "  Thy  kingdom  come,  thy  will  be  done  in 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  That  prayer  and  its  an- 
swer have  gradually  transformed  and  are  transform- 
ing human  society.  The  old  order  which  Plato  and 
Aristotle  saw  about  them  was  not  a  wholly  necessary 
or  permanent  order.  Through  the  teachings  of 
Christ  the  theocratic  idea  of  society  which  Moses 
taught  the  ancient  Hebrews,  which  Samuel  loved 
but  could  not  perpetuate  in  its  purity,  which  the 
prophets  steadily  held  before  the  world  for  centu- 
ries, and  which  the  Christian  ministry  has  diffused 
throughout    the   globe,    has    become    the    confessed 


WHAT  IS  HUMAN  SOCIETY?  2J 

faith  of  all  civilized  nations,  who  accept  it  because 
they  are  civilized,  and  are  civilized  because  they  ac- 
cept it.  For  these  millions,  higher  and  more  potent 
than  any  human  king  is  the  "  King  Invisible."  His 
will  is  the  ideal  of  society,  and  must  be  discovered 
and  obeyed.  Henceforth  men  conceive  that  society 
is  to  be  shaped  by  the  conformity  of  individual  wills 
to  a  divine  will.  It  is  the  organized  assent  of  per- 
sons to  the  plan  of  a  Person.  It  is  no  longer  the 
product  of  nature  alone,  the  creature  of  cosmic 
forces  acting  in  accordance  with  necessary  laws. 
Its  climax  is  not  in  the  realization  of  a  "  moral  per- 
son "  whose  substance  is  the  nation,  but  in  conform- 
ity to  an  infinite  righteousness  whose  substance  is 
the  living  God. 

4.  Christ  not  only  introduced  what  was  to  the^ 
pagan  world  a  new  idea  of  society,  but  he  proposed 
to  create  a  new  society.  What  was  his  method  ? 
"It  was,"  says  Dr.  Fairbairn,  "to  work  from  within 
outward,  from  the  one  to  the  many,  from  the  unit  to 
the  mass.  He  proceeded  by  calling  individuals,  for 
their  own  sakes  indeed,  yet  not  for  their  own  sakes 
only,  but  for  man's  as  well.  Christ,  in  order  that 
the  truth  and  life  in  him  might  live  and  work,  cre- 
ated out  of  the  men  he  called  and  saved  a  society, 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  the  city  of  God.  .  .  .  The 
society  of  the  saved  was  intended  to  be  a  society  of 
the  healed,  working  like  a  great  healthful  balm  in 
the  sick  heart  of  humanity."14     Was  it  not  his  aim 

14  A.  M.  Fairbairn's  The  City  of  God,  part  iii;  Discourse  on  Christ  in 
History. 


28  SOCIAL    INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY, 

that  this  society  should  ultimately  absorb  and  trans- 
figure human  society  ?  Has  Christianity,  then,  no 
relation  to  social  problems  ?  Is  not  its  relation  that 
of  leaven  to  the  loaf,  a  perfect  solution  of  social 
problems  by  a  thorough  permeation  and  transforma- 
tion ?  If  not,  why  should  we  continue  to  pray 
against  hope,   "  Thy  kingdom  come  "  ? 

5.  We  have  found  among  the  Hebrews  a  concep- 
tion of  society  based  upon  a  realizable  ideal.  While 
it  is  in  part  in  perfect  contrast  to  the  prevailing  pagan 
conception,  it  does  not  altogether  exclude  the  notion 
of  society  as  a  natural  product  and  essentially  an 
organism.  It  would  seem,  on  the  contrary,  that  the 
Hebrew  doctrine  of  God's  relation  to  the  world  as 
Creator  and  Providence  would  involve  likewise  his 
authorship  of  society.  In  truth,  the  Hebrew  com- 
monwealth was  regarded  as  his  particular  creation, 
and  it  was  held  to  differ  from  other  societies  in  being 
throughout  of  divine  constitution.  But  the  volun- 
tary element  was  always  uppermost  in  the  Hebrew 
mind.  God  "  chose  "  his  people,  and  his  people  also 
"  chose  "  him.  "  Choose  you  this  day,  whom  ye  will 
serve,"  implies  the  presence  of  volition  in  the  union 
with  the  commonwealth.  The  human  will  was  even 
more  distinctly  recognized  by  Christ.  "  Ye  will  not 
come  to  me,  that  ye  might  have  life,"  marks  the 
entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  not,  indeed,  as 
resulting  from  volition,  but  as  impossible  without  it. 
If  we  accept  the  psychology  of  Christ,  we  shall  hold 
that  certain  forms  of  association  are  based  upon  con 
sent,  or  covenant,  and   that  society  is  composed  of 


WHAT  IS  HUMAN  SOCIETY?  29 

persons  who  do  not  act  solely  from  necessity.  Soci- 
ety may  also  be  an  organism.  Paul  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  describe  a  spiritual  society  in  the  terms  of 
organic  analogy.  "For  as  we  have  many  members 
in  one  body,  and  all  members  have  not  the  same 
office  ;  so  we,  being  many,  are  one  body  in  Christ  ; 
and  every  one  members  one  of  another."  And  the 
Church  is  called  "the  body"  of  Christ.  But  we 
must  not  forget  that  this  body  is  composed  of  those 
who  have  willingly  become  its  parts,  and  that  uncon- 
scious or  involuntary  constituents  are  wholly  beyond 
the  scope  of  its  inclusion.  Those  who  "  would  not 
come  "  that  they  "  might  have  life  "  were  excluded 
from  that  body,  the  Church,  in  which  the  life  of 
Christ  is  supposed  especially  to  reside.  The  very 
notion  of  the  kingdom  of  God  implies  a  conscious 
and  voluntary  entrance  into  it.  "  Repent  ye,  repent 
ye,"  is  the  herald's  cry,  as  he  invites  men  to  enter 
the  coming  kingdom,  as  if  the  very  foundation  of 
that  new  society  depended  upon  the  mental  acts  of 
its  possible  constituents.  And  thus  has  been  vindi- 
cated in  the  field  of  history  by  the  growth  of  that 
ever-coming  kingdom,  and  even  more  fully  by  its 
variant  forms  of  polity  illustrated  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Church,  the  power  of  men  to  pursue, 
and  in  part  to  realize,  a  social  ideal,  to  associate 
themselves  by  contract  and  covenant  for  purposes 
dear  to  themselves,  and  to  constitute  a  society  of 
which  nature  is  not  the  cause,  and  which  is  a  living 
organism  only  as  it  embodies  a  life  that  is  not  a  pro- 
duct of  itself. 


3° 


SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


III. 


We  are  now  prepared  to  make  a  rapid  synthesis  ^of 
the  elements  that  constitute  society  and  to  answer 
our  main  question  :  What  is  its  nature  ? 

i.  Man  is  a  being  of  numerous  instinctive  wants, 
whose    satisfaction     requires     his    association    with 
others    of    his    kind.       Endowed   with    reason    and 
articulate   speech,  men    naturally   seelc    companion- 
ship.    Sympathy  also  serves  to  draw  men  together, 
and  affection  weaves  its  invisible  but  powerful  net- 
work about  them.     Three  preeminent  needs  are  con- 
stant and  universal  with  men,  holding  together  even 
the  incommunicative,  the  unsympathetic,  and  those 
without  true  affection.     They  are  :  (i)  The  need  of 
physical  comforts,  which  gives  rise  to  economic  insti- 
tutions ;    (2)    the    need    of    sexual    companionship, 
which  gives    rise    to   the    domestic   institution ;    and 
(3)   the  need  of   protection    from    enemies   and    the 
rapacious,  which  gives  rise  to  political  institutions. 
These  are  the  "  social  bonds  "  which,  more  than  any 
others,  hold  individuals  together  in  society.      Thus 
the  rudiments  of  society  are  formed  by  nature. 

2.  Men  are  also  endowed  with  will,  and  in  satisfy- 
ing these  needs,  they  may  regard  or  ignore  the  laws 
of  normal  conduct.  They  may  satisfy  their  physical 
appetites  by  labor,  theft,  or  slavery.  They  may 
establish  their  sexual  relations  upon  the  basis  of 
monogamy  or  upon  that  of  polygamy.  They  may 
protect  themselves  by  private  wars,  by  servile  sub- 
mission to  a  chief  who  will  promise  them  safety,  or 


WHAT  IS  HUMAN  SOCIETY?  3  I 

by  the  enactment  of  just  laws  to  be  executed  by 
public  officers.  It  is  because  the  will  of  man  may 
modify  the  rudimentary  society  established  by  na- 
ture, that  there  are  social  problems. 

3.  But  man  is  not  simply  a  compound  of  instinc- 
tive wants  and  self-determining  will.  He  is  also 
endowed  with  intellect,  by  which  he  can  create  and 
comprehend  ideals  both  of  private  and  public  action. 
The  real  progress  of  society  is  attained  in  the  grad- 
ual realization  of  these  ideals  by  their  incorporation 
into  life.  The  problems  of  society  in  every  age  are, 
how  to  render  the  ideal  actual  in  the  performance  of 
social  functions. 

4.  Our  answer  to  the  question,  What  is  human 
society  ?  is  this  :  It  is  a  composite  product  of  (1) 
natural  wants,  (2)  human  wills,  and  (3)  moral  ideals. 
The  human  society  of  to-day  is  the  result  of  associa- 
tion prompted  by  human  wants,  which  are  formulated 
by  human  wills,  through  the  partial  appropriation  of 
moral  ideals.  The  reconstruction  or  transformation 
of  society  must  proceed  upon  a  clear  comprehension 
of  the  natural  basis  of  society  in  the  instinctive 
wants  of  man,  the  mode  in  which  the  human  will 
can  affect  the  performance  of  social  functions,  and 
the  motives  for  the  conformity  of  the  popular  will  to 
the  ideals  of  a  higher  social  life. 

I  can  never  think  of  the  relation  of  Christianity 
to  social  problems  without  seeing  before  my  mind's 
eye  that  powerful  picture  of  Hofmann's  that  hangs 
in  the  gallery  at  Dresden,  representing  the  youthful 
Christ    in    the   Temple,   surrounded    by  the   Jewish 


32  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

doctors.  In  the  midst  of  that  throng  of  shrewd  yet 
puzzled  faces,  wearing  the  venerable  aspect  of 
authority,  the  gentle  youth  stands  a  little  apart, 
his  sad,  intellectual  features  softened  with  a  smile 
of  unutterable  sweetness,  his  high,  pure  brow  and 
white,  glistening  garments  radiating  a  light  that 
Feems  to  palpitate  with  life  and  to  chase  away  every 
shadow  within  the  sweep  of  its  illumination.  He 
stands  there  like  a  heavenly  messenger  who  has  just 
arrived  from  the  effulgence  of  the  throne  of  God 
upon  some  earthly  embassy.  The  doctors  of  the 
law  are  silent  before  him.  They  wait,  as  if  in  awe, 
for  the  parting  of  his  boyish  lips.  It  is  the  picture 
of  the  living  Christ  opening  to  mortal  eyes  the 
vision  of  God's  coming  kingdom.  Thus  to  earth's 
sovereigns  and  jurisconsults  and  doctrinaires  and 
social  theorists  Christ  unfolds  the  divine  ideals  of 
human  society,  while  the  waiting  world  is  hushed 
into  silence  by  the  spell  of  his  power  and  hangs 
its  hopes  upon  his  words  of  life. 


II. 


WHAT   HAS   CHRISTIANITY   DONE 
FOR   SOCIETY? 


WHAT  HAS  CHRISTIANITY  DONE   FOR  SOCIETY? 


I.    WHAT   IS    CHRISTIANITY  ? 

i .    As  an  Ethical  Doctrine  and  Life. 

2.  As  an  Influence  touching  the  whole  Nature. 

3.  The  Method  of  Christianity. 

II.    THE  SOCIAL  FUNCTIONS  AFFECTED  BY  CHRIS- 
TIANITY. 

1.  Possibility  of    tracing  the  Social  Influence  of  Chris- 

tianity. 

2.  The  Functions  of  Society: 

(1)  The  Industrial ; 

(2)  The  Domestic ; 

(3)  The  Political. 

III.    THE   EFFECTS    OF    CHRISTIANITY    UPON 

SOCIETY. 

1 .  Upon  Labor  and  the  Laborer : 

(1)  By  dignifying  Labor; 

(2)  By  producing  a  Rehabilitation  uf  Labor; 

(3)  By  destroying  Slavery ; 

(4)  By  consecrating  Labor. 

2.  Upon  Wealth  and  its  Uses  : 

(1)  Christ's  Doctrine  of  Wealth. 

(2)  Christian  Beneficence. 

(3)  Christianity  and  the  Right  of  Property. 

3.  Upon  Marriage  and  Woman. 

(1)  The  Ancient  Status  of  Woman. 

(2)  The  Germanic  Status. 

(3)  The  Transformation  of  Marriage. 

4.  Upon  Children  and  Education. 

(0  The  Ancient  Status  of  Children. 

(2)  The  Character  of  Pagan  Education. 

(3)  The  Establishment  of  Christian  Schools. 

5.  Upon  Legislation. 

(1)  In  respect  to  Personal  Status. 

(2)  In  respect  to  Personal  Conduct. 

6.  Upon  Punishment. 


II. 


WHAT  HAS  CHRISTIANITY  DONE  FOR  SOCIETY? 

Having  arrived  at  a  conception  of  the  nature  of 
human  society,  we  may  ask,  What  has  Christianity 
done  for  it  ?  From  this  historical  retrospect  we  may 
derive  some  aid  in  showing  what  more  it  can  do  in 
the  future  for  society.  As  a  preliminary,  however, 
to  both  these  inquiries,  we  must  first  ask,  What  do 
we  mean  by  Christianity  ? 


i.  Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  imprison  within 
a  brief  verbal  formula  the  essence  of  Christianity.  It 
is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  say  that  I  nowhere  in- 
tend to  identify  it  with  the  Church.  That  would  be 
to  include  a  large  element  of  human  policy  and  even 
directly  anti-Christian  power.  I  can  find  no  better 
expression  of  my  idea  of  Christianity  than  to  say 
that  it  is  the  influence  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  a 
double  influence,  that  of  a  personal  life  and  that  of 
doctrinal  teaching ;  of  a  life  not  less  than  of  a  doc- 
trine, for  the  figure  of  Christ's  person  is  not  less 
conspicuous  in  the  world's  eye  than  the  authority  of 
his  teaching.  Indeed,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the 
authority  of  his  doctrine  proceeds  from  the  nature 
of  his  person.     Between  them  there  is  the  most  per- 


^,6  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

feet  union.  The  Evangelist,  John,  said  :  "  In  him 
was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men."  That 
luminous  life  was  a  double  one,  in  which  the  divine 
and  the  human  were  consciously  united.  His  doc- 
trine is  the  revelation  of  his  life,  translated  into 
human  language.  It  teaches  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  brotherhood  of  men,  as  realized  in  his  own 
being.  His  conception  of  a  perfect  society  is  a  state 
in  which  God  is  loved  as  Father,  and  men  are  loved 
as  brethren.  Hence,  he  sums  up  all  human  duty  in 
that  brief  epitome  of  the  law  :  "Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind  ; 
and  thy  neighbour  as  thyself."  We  must  not  allow 
ourselves  to  fall  into  the  barren  scholasticism  of  re- 
garding this  summary  as  merely  a  new  classification 
of  duties.  Its  true  originality  is  not  in  its  abridge- 
ment of  earlier  ethical  codes,  but  in  the  disclosure  of 
the  real  essence  of  the  human  ideal.  The  emphasis 
of  Christ's  new  promulgation  of  the  law  is  not  love 
God,  or  love  thy  neighbor,  but  love  God,  and  love  thy 
neighbor.  Love  is  the  essence  of  the  law.  It  is  not 
a  classification  of  duties  which  Christ  offers,  but  a 
new  statement  of  the  very  substance  of  duty. 

2.  Christianity  is  the  influence  of  that  doctrine, 
and  of  the  life  in  which  it  was  perfectly  exemplified, 
on  the  world.  It  has  proved  the  most  epoch-making 
influence  that  has  ever  been  introduced  into  society. 
It  has  appealed  to  the  intellect  and  to  the  heart  with 
a  power  to  which  no  other  influence  is  comparable,  at 
once  enlightening  the  understanding  and  quickening 


WHAT  HAS    CHRISTIANITY  DONE?  37 

the  sensibilities.  There  were  other  elements,  how- 
ever, in  the  influence  of  Christ  as  potent  in  com- 
manding men  as  his  ethical  doctrine  and  his  personal 
life.  His  miraculous  power,  his  resurrection  from 
the  dead,  his  promise  of  immortality,  his  atonement 
for  sin,  must  not  be  underestimated.  They  have 
given  him  a  hold  on  men  through  the  imagination, 
through  the  hopes  of  the  heart,  and  through  the  con- 
sciousness of  sin,  that  an  ethical  life  and  doctrine 
alone  could  never  have  secured.  All  these  are  in- 
cluded in  any  adequate  conception  of  historical 
Christianity,  and  without  them  we  can  have  no  expla- 
nation of  its  power  in  the  world. 

3.  I  have  already  referred  to  Christ's  method. 
His  teachings  were  directed  to  individuals,  but  they 
are  found  in  their  ultimate  implications  to  extend  to 
society.  The  words  of  Christ  have  wonderful  rever- 
berating power.  Without  ever  speaking  of  society 
as  an  object  of  interest  to  him,  he  has  uttered  truth 
that  has  affected  it  profoundly,  because  it  has  been 
reflected  from  personal  to  public  life,  until  the  pre- 
cepts of  private  conduct  have  been  reechoed  as  the 
laws  of  nations.  Christ  taught  the  need  of  indi- 
vidual regeneration,  and  history  shows  that  the 
regeneration  of  men  is  the  regeneration  of  society. 
Taine  simply  restates  a  very  ancient  Christian  truth 
when  he  says  :  "  History  is  at  bottom  a  problem  of 
psychology." 

II. 

1.  Can  we  disentangle  from  the  fabric  of  history 
those  threads  which  have  been  woven  into  it  by  the 


38  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

influence  of  Jesus,  and  whose  bright  colors  would 
not  adorn  it  were  it  not  for  him  ?  It  is  a  difficult 
and  a  delicate  task,  and  though  I  cannot  hope  to 
accomplish  it  completely,  I  believe  that  it  will  be 
possible  to  show  that  much  that  the  world  most 
highly  values  can  be  directly  and  unerringly  traced 
back  to  this  origin. 

2.  In  order  to  exclude  from  notice  those  effects  of 
Christianity  that  belong  to  the  individual  solely,  and 
to  confine  ourselves  to  those  which  are  strictly  social, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  enumerate  the  specific  func- 
tions of  society,  and  then  to  see  how  the  influence  of 
Jesus  has  affected  them.  Society  is  a  state  of  asso- 
ciation for  the  satisfaction  of  three  universal  needs  : 
(1)  The  need  of  physical  comforts;  (2)  the  need  of 
sexual  companionship,  and  (3)  the  need  of  protection 
of  rights.  It  performs,  therefore,  three  functions : 
(1)  The  industrial,  relating  to  means  of  sustaining 
or  preserving  men  ;  (2)  the  domestic,  relating  to  the 
means  of  multiplying  or  producing  men,  and  (3)  the 
political,  relating  to  means  of  regulating  or  governing 
men. 

(1)  The  industrial  function  presents  two  problems. 
The  first  is  that  of  labor,  or  the  production  of  sub- 
sistence. The  second  is  that  of  wealth,  or  the  dis- 
tribution of  subsistence.  These  two  problems  were 
especially  difficult  to  solve  at  the  time  when  Christ 
came  into  the  world,  when  three  fourths  of  the  popu- 
lation of  Rome  were  enrolled  paupers  and  the  in- 
equalities which  wealth  had  created  held  half  the 
world  in  slavery. 


WHAT  HAS   CHRISTIANITY  DONE?  39 

(2)  The  domestic  function  also  gives  rise  to  two 
problems.  The  first  is  that  of  marriage,  the  con- 
dition of  the  increase  of  population,  reduced  to  a 
merely  nominal  institution  by  the  "free  marriage" 
system  and  loose  divorce  laws  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
The  second  is  education,  or  the  development  of  the 
population,  a  truly  domestic  institution,  since  it  be- 
gins in  the  family  and  is  normally  transferred  only  to 
one  who  stands  in  loco  parentis.  If  the  increase  of 
life  be  detached  from  responsibility  for  the  destiny  of 
life,  there  can  be  no  stable  condition  of  society. 
For  this  reason  education  is  normally  a  domestic 
institution. 

(3)  The  political  function  also  suggests  two  prob- 
lems. The  first  is  that  of  legislation,  or  the  defini- 
tion of  rights.  The  second  is  that  of  repression,  or 
the  enforcement  of  rights. 

III. 

We  shall  see  presently  something  of  what  Chris- 
tianity has  done  for  the  solution  of  these  vast  prob- 
lems with  which  all  great  minds  have  struggled. 
But,  first  of  all,  let  us  note  with  what  new  impulse 
Christianity  began  its  work.  Its  apostles  moved,  as 
they  thought,  under  the  mandate  of  a  divine  impera- 
tive. Called  by  the  voice  of  the  Eternal,  they  went 
forth  with  the  weight  of  the  universe  behind  them. 
No  men  had  ever  before  received  such  a  vocation, 
and  none  had  ever  before  such  a  sense  of  their  mis- 
sion. "  Go  teach  all  nations  "  implied  that  all  nations 
could  be  taught  ;  that  there  were  in  every  man,  under 


4o 


SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


a  skin  of  whatever  color,  whether  bond  or  free,  a 
reason  and  a  conscience  that  bore  in  fractured  out- 
lines the  lineaments  of  a  God.  No  earthly  conqueror 
had  ever  gone  forth  to  conquer  the  hearts  and  wills 
of  men.  But  the  Apostles  went  upon  an  embassy 
that  implied  a  new  conception  of  man,  such  as  before 
had  entered  no  man's  mind.  Without  distinction  of 
race  or  sex  or  estate,  men  were  to  be  taught  that 
God  was  their  Father,  and  were  to  express  in  a  visi- 
ble symbol  the  washing  away  of  the  old  and  the 
resurrection  of  the  new  humanity.  The  exalted  idea 
of  man  that  went  out  from  Judaea  to  change  the  insti- 
tutions of  men  was  alone  sufficient  to  reconstruct 
society  and  inaugurate  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of 
the  world. 

i.  (i)  Spread  throughout  the  civilized  nations  was 
a  profound  contempt  for  labor  and  the  laborer.  Cic- 
ero had  said  :  "  All  who  live  by  mercenary  labor  do  a 
degrading  business.  No  noble  sentiment  can  come 
from  a  workshop."  The  wise  Seneca,  one  of  the 
much-lauded  Stoics,  had  taught :  "  The  invention  of 
the  arts  belongs  to  the  vilest  slaves.  Wisdom  dwells 
in  loftier  regions  ;  she  soils  not  her  hands  with 
labor."  None  but  slaves  engaged  in  any  form  of 
toil.  Pauperism  was  widespread  among  the  people. 
Under  Augustus  two  hundred  thousand  persons  were 
fed  from  the  public  granaries  of  Rome.  Among  such 
idlers,  who  claimed  indolence  as  an  hereditary  and  in- 
alienable right,  Paul  went  to  live  and  to  earn  his  bread 
by  manual  labor.  Writing  to  the  Corinthians  he 
says:  "We  labor,   working    with    our   own    hands." 


WHAT  HAS   CHRISTIANITY  DONE?  41 

And  to  the  Thessalonians  :  "  If  any  would  not  work, 
neither  should  he  eat."  The  agitators  of  our  day 
plead  for  the  "rights"  of  labor.  The  disciples  of 
that  day  were  taught  the  "duty"  of  labor.  In  the 
"Apostolic  Constitutions,"  Clement  is  reported  as 
writing,  "  Labor  according  to  your  estate  in  all  sanc- 
tity, in  order  that  you  may  be  able  to  succor  your 
unfortunate  brethren  and  that  you  may  not  be  a 
charge  to  the  church.  We  ourselves,  who  preach  the 
word  of  the  gospel,  do  not  neglect  labor  of  another 
order.  Among  us,  some  are  fishers,  others  artisans, 
others  husbandmen.  We  are  never  idle."  Is  it  a 
wonder  that  in  three  centuries  these  heroic  Chris- 
tians, led  by  such  devoted  leaders,  even  amid  violent 
persecutions  and  subjected  to  cruel  taxation,  rose  to 
wealth  and  power  in  the  Roman  Empire  and  won  for 
themselves  the  first  places  in  the  nation  ?  Ignatius, 
Justin,  and  Epiphanius  give  similar  testimony  to  the 
industry  of  the  disciples  of  Christ  and  exhort  their 
brethren  to  emulate  their  example.1 

2)  Thus  dignified  and  rendered  honorable  by 
Christian  practice,  labor  received  a  veritable  "  rehabili- 
tation." The  fourth  Council  of  Carthage  solemnly 
decreed  that  "  it  was  good  that  every  clerk  win  his 
bread  either  by  trade  or  by  cultivating  the  ground."2 
In  addition  to  their  literary  studies,  all  candidates 
for  orders  were  required  to  learn  a  trade.  Augustine 
stirred  his  generation  by  his  famous  treatise  "  On  the 

1  Const.  Apost.  ii,  67 ;   Ignatius,  Epist.  vii,  ad  Tarsenes ;    Justin,  De  Vita 
Christiana ;   Epiphanius,  Heres,  Ixxx. 

2  Concil.  Carthas;.  Ii,  lii,  iiii. 


42 


SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


Work  of  Monks,"  in  which  he  demanded  that  none 
should  be  idle.  Benedict  intermingled  labor  with 
prayer,  and  the  Benedictine  order  required  seven 
hours  of  daily  toil,  four  hours  of  which  must  be  spent 
in  manual  labor.  These  monks-  wandered  to  every 
land,  true  missionaries  of  industry,  and  at  last  Europe 
was  transformed  from  a  country  of  idlers  and  paupers 
into  a  busy  scene  of  honorable  labor.  The  origin  of 
the  great  corporations  of  workmen  is  still  obscure. 
Some  have  professed  to  find  traces  of  them  in  the 
capitularies  of  Charlemagne.  It  is  certain,  however, 
that  they  grew  up  under  the  influence  of  Christian 
teaching  and  laid  the  foundations  of  organized  indus- 
try throughout  the  world.3 

(3)  From  its  very  inception  Christianity  began  in 
the  most  effective  way  to  undermine  the  almost  uni- 
versal system  of  human  slavery.  To  have  opposed 
it  directly  and  radically,  in  the  circumstances  that  then 
existed,  would  have  been  to  suppress  Christianity 
itself  ;  but  what  the  ultimate  effect  of  Christianity 
must  be  is  discernible  in  Paul's  course  with  Onesimus, 
as  related  in  his  beautiful  and  pathetic  letter  to  Phile- 
mon. That  Paul  was  sensible  of  the  dreadful  curse 
of  slavery  there  can  be  no  doubt.  "  For  public 
depravity  to  reach  its  utmost  depths  of  degradation," 
says  a  French  writer  on  slavery,  "  there  needed  to  be 
a  being  with  the  passions  and  attractions  of  a  man, 
yet  stripped  by  public  opinion  of  all  the  moral  obliga- 
tions of  a  human  being  ;  all   whose  wildest  excesses 

*  For  the  history  of  guilds,  religious,  social,  and  industrial,  see  George 
Howell's  The  Conflicts  of  Capital  and  Labor,  chap.  i. 


WHAT  HAS   CHRISTIANITY  DONE?  43 

were  lawful,  provided  they  were  commanded  by  a 
master.  Such  a  being  was  the  Roman  slave."4  But 
such  a  being  could  not  long  exist  under  Christian 
influence.  Almost  immediately  amelioration  was 
introduced  into  the  slave's  condition,  enfranchise- 
ment usually  followed  among  Christian  slaveholders, 
innumerable  death-bed  liberations  marked  the  effect 
of  Christian  tendencies,  the  moral  sense  was  gradu- 
ally stirred  to  perception,  and  slavery  has  finally  van- 
ished from  the  earth  in  every  Christian  land.  It  was 
morally  impossible  that  the  relation  of  owner  and 
chattel  could  permanently  continue  between  Christian 
brethren. 

(4)  Christianity  not  only  gradually  liberated  labor 
from  its  yoke  of  bondage,  but  rendered  it  conscien- 
tious even  to  consecration.  "  Labor  in  all  sanctity," 
says  Clement,  and  the  Christian  workman  began  to 
sanctify  his  toil.  The  builders  of  the  great  cathedrals 
have  left  us  examples  of  this  sanctified  workmanship. 
Not  only  those  marvels  of  human  construction  them- 
selves, but  the  holy  inspiration  that  toiled  upon 
them,  has  Christianity  given  to  the  world.  "  The 
architectural  investigator  of  the  nineteenth  century  is 
amazed  and  awed,"  says  Brace,  "  to  discover  sometimes 
on  remote  portions  of  a  church  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury beautifully  carved  stonework,  with  every  detail 
perfect,  which  no  human  eye  has  seen  for  six  hundred 
years,  as  if  the  workman  had  chiseled  these  exqui- 
site ornamentations  'for  the  love  of  God,'  and  not  for 
the  praise  or  hire  of  men.     Nor  does  it  lower  the  aspi- 

*  Wallon,  quoted  by  Charles  Loring  Brace  in  Gesla  Christi,  chap.  v. 


44  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

ration  that,  once  imbued  with  the  devotion  of  the  age, 
the  architect  and  builder  did  his  work  not  conscious 
always  of  the  divine,  but  from  the  habit  of  honest  and 
reverent  work  taught  him  by  his  faith.  It  was 
simply  unconscious  religion  in  practical  life."5 

2.  The  pagan  love  of  wealth  was  based  on  the  idea 
that  happiness  consists  in  selfish  luxury.  That  con- 
ception was  almost  universal  before  the  time  of 
Christ  and  long  afterward  among  those  who  did  not 
accept  his  teaching.  It  is  still  the  world's  idea,  ex- 
cept among  Christian  people.  Aristotle  said  :  "  The 
title  of  citizen  belongs  only  to  those  who  need  not 
work  to  live."6  In  the  ancient  state,  property  made 
the  citizen.  Without  it  a  man  fell  into  contempt 
and  was  treated  as  an  outcast,  or  practically  sold 
himself  to  men  of  wealth  and  power  and  became 
their  political  tool. 

(i)  The  doctrine  of  Christ  assumes  the  inherent 
worth  and  dignity  of  human  nature,  without  regard 
to  its  externals.  Neither  wealth  nor  poverty  makes  a 
man  greater  or  better  in  the  sight  of  God.  But  a 
different  idea  is  sometimes  attributed  to  Christ.  He 
is  represented  as  totally  condemning  both  riches  and 
rich  men.  It  would  be  difficult  to  show  that  either 
wealth  itself  or  the  accumulation  of  it  is  condemned 
by  Christ.  There  are  considerations  that  might  even 
lead  us  to  believe  that  he  himself,  in  spite  of  the 
traditional  view,  was  not  wholly  destitute.  His  say- 
ing, "The  foxes  have  holes  and  the  birds  of  the  air 

5  Brace's  Gesta  Christi,  p.  495. 
8  Aristotle's  Politics,  iii,  3,  2. 


WHAT  HAS   CHRISTIANITY  DONE?  45 

have  nests,  but  the  Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to 
lay  his  head,"  was  spoken  in  view  of  his  approach- 
ing passion  and  has  obvious  reference  to  his  having 
no  place  of  shelter  from  pursuit.  It  was  the  answer 
to  a  "certain  scribe,"  who  had  proposed,  not  to  live 
with  him  in  his  home,  but  to  follow  him  as  a  disciple. 
It  was  like  his  reply  to  the  mother  of  Zebedee's 
children,  when  he  asked  if  they  could  endure  his 
baptism.  There  is  no  ground,  therefore,  for  the 
inference  that  Christ  was  absolutely  homeless  and 
penniless.  Is  it  impossible  that  out  of  his  thirty 
years  of  life  before  the  beginning  of  his  ministry, 
Jesus  had  gathered  enough  to  furnish  a  home  for  his 
widowed  mother  ?  If  Paul  thought  it  becoming  that 
he  should  supply  his  own  necessities  with  the  labor 
of  his  hands,  is  it  probable  that  Jesus  was  for  three 
years  an  absolute  pensioner  on  public  charity  ?  His 
tender  remembrance  of  his  mother  in  his  dying 
agony,  when  he  transferred  his  filial  duties  to  his 
loving  disciple  John,  with  the  words,  "  Woman, 
behold,  thy  son,"  seems  to  imply  a  previous  dis- 
charge of  those  duties  by  himself  during  all  the 
years  of  his  ministry.  And  the  reported  words  of 
Jesus  do  not  convince  us  of  his  antipathy  to  wealth. 
He  does  not  censure  prudent  accumulation  when  he 
says,  "  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  the 
earth,"  but  selfish  accumulation,  laying  up  treasures 
for  "yourselves,"  and  laying  them  up  upon  the  earth 
alone,  instead  of  laying  them  up  in  heaven.  "  Labor 
not  for  the  meat  that  perisheth  "  is  not  a  prohibition 
of  eating,  or  of  acquiring  food  by  labor,  but  of  losing 


46  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

all  thought  of  the  lasting  in  toiling  for  the  perish- 
able. These  are,  indeed,  dissuasions  from  the  pur- 
suit of  wealth  as  the  chief  good,  as  the  pagan  world 
considered  it,  but  not  condemnations  of  wealth  or  its 
acquisition.  The  dangers  of  wealth  are,  however, 
made  apparent.  "  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mam- 
mon." "  How  hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God!"  The  difficulty  is 
emphasized,  but  the  impossibility  is  not  asserted. 
"Woe  unto  you  that  are  rich!"  But  if  we  ask 
wherefore,  the  answer  runs,  "  For  ye  have  received 
your  consolation," — you  have  chosen  a  good  that 
has  consolation  only  for  the  present  and  have  noth- 
ing for  the  future  ;  you  have  made  a  woeful  choice. 
The  evil  of  it  Paul  explains  :  "  They  that  will  be  rich 
fall- into  temptation  and  a  snare,  and  into  many  fool- 
ish and  hurtful  lusts  which  drown  men  in  destruction 
and  perdition."  It  is  not  "money  "  but  the  "  love" 
of  it,  the  misplacement  of  affection  belonging  nor- 
mally to  nobler  things,  that  is  the  "  root  of  all 
evil."  It  is  in  "  coveting  after  it  "  that  some  "have 
erred  from  the  faith,  and  pierced  themselves  through 
with  many  sorrows." 

(2)  Paganism  said,  Love  wealth  ;  Christianity  said, 
Love  men.  The  contrast  is  beautifully  exhibited  in 
the  new  idea  of  wealth  which  Christ  introduced  into 
the  world.  "  A  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abun- 
dance of  the  things  which  he  possesseth,"  said  Jesus. 
The  world  has  usually  thought  that  it  does.  Christ 
has  led  many  millions  to  think  otherwise.  The 
power  of  the  new  doctrine  is  seen  in  the  immediate 


WHAT  HAS    CHRISTIANITY  DONE? 


47 


consequences  of  its  acceptance.  Of  the  church  in 
Jerusalem  we  read  :  "  And  the  multitude  of  them 
that  believed  were  of  one  heart  and  of  one  soul ; 
neither  said  any  of  them  that  aught  of  the  things 
which  he  possessed  was  his  own ;  but  they  had  all 
things  in  common."  In  ever-widening  circles  the 
great  wave  of  charity  has  spread  throughout  the 
world.  The  consecration  of  wealth  to  the  good  of 
man  was  a  wholly  new  idea.  These  words  of  the 
Apostolic  Constitutions  seem  like  the  very  charter 
of  Christian  charity  :  "  To  orphans  take  the  place  of 
a  father ;  to  widows  give  the  protection  they  would 
have  had  from  their  husbands  ;  help  young  people 
who  desire  to  marry  with  your  counsels  ;  find  work 
for  artisans  ;  have  pity  on  the  infirm  ;  receive  stran- 
gers beneath  your  roof  ;  give  food  and  drink  to  those 
who  are  hungry  and  thirsty,  and  clothes  to  the 
naked  ;  visit  the  sick  and  help  the  prisoners."  7  And 
note  how  wisely  these  duties  are  imposed.  The 
absolutely  helpless  alone  are  to  be  provided  for  ;  the 
young  and  capable  are  to  be  put  in  the  way  of  self- 
help  ;  the  accidentally  unfortunate  are  to  have  their 
immediate  needs  supplied.  Here  is  no  indiscriminate 
and  broadcast  sacrifice  of  the  rich  to  the  poor.  The 
whole  movement  is  prompted  by  the  recognition 
of  the  man,  rather  than  the  regard  of  circumstances ; 
everything  is  designed  to  elevate,  to  comfort,  to 
reform,  or  to  assist  the  man  and  to  make  him  master 
his  surroundings  and  rise  superior  to  his  miseries. 
If  charity  sometimes  manifested  more  of  sympathy 

'  Const.  Apost.  iv,  2. 


48  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

than  of  discernment,  we  must  account  it  a  phenome- 
non very  rare  in  the  world  and  too  creditable  to  the 
faith  of  enthusiasts  to  deserve  severe  censure.  It 
is  true  that  the  Church  of  Rome  alone  supported 
more  then  fifteen  hundred  poor  people,  and  the 
Church  at  Antioch,  in  the  time  of  Chrysostom, 
maintained  more  than  .three  thousand.  It  is  true 
that  men  like  Basil  the  Great,  and  Paulinus  of  Nola, 
and  Hilary  of  Aries,  gave  their  entire  estates  to  the 
poor,  and  that  priests  sold  their  sacerdotal  robes,  aye, 
even  the  golden  vessels  of  the  holy  communion,  in 
order  to  feed  the  poor.  A  more  discriminating  sym- 
pathy established  homes  for  widows  and  orphans, 
hospitals  for  the  sick  and  maimed,  and  asylums  for 
abandoned  women.8 

(3)  It  has  sometimes  been  thought  that  Chris- 
tianity instituted  and  favored  communistic  life  and 
denied  the  right  of  private  property.  This  has  been 
argued  from  the  practice  of  the  church  at  Jerusalem 
and  the  expressions  of  the  early  Christian  Fathers. 
In  the  church  at  Jerusalem  there  was  neither  an 
authoritative  community  of  goods  nor  was  it  intended 
for  a  model.  It  was  a  temporary  expediency  for 
meeting  an  emergency,  when  many  of  the  disciples 
were  poor,  when  sympathy  drew  all  hearts  together, 
and  when  union  was  essential  to  safety.  The  gifts 
were  all  voluntary.  Ananias  was  not  rebuked  for 
retaining  a  part  of  his  possessions,  and  his  right 
to  do  this  was  expressly  conceded.  "  Whiles  it 
remained,   was  it  not  thine  own?   and  after   it   was 

8  C.  Schmidt's  The  Social  Results  of  Early  Christianity,  book  ii,  chap.  v. 


WHAT  HAS   CHRISTIANITY  DONE?  49 

sold,  was  it  not  in  thine  own  power  ?  Why  hast 
thou  conceived  this  thing  in  thy  heart  ?  Thou  hast 
not  lied  unto  men,  but  unto  God."  And  throughout 
the  whole  thrilling  narrative  there  is  no  slightest 
intimation  that  the  right  of  property  was  brought 
in  question.  It  has  been  affirmed  that  the  Fathers 
openly  and  strongly  deny  the  right  of  private  pos- 
session. Their  words  do,  indeed,  seem  to  imply 
this.9  Basil,  Chrysostom,  Jerome,  Ambrose,  and 
Clement  all  employ  language  that  sounds  communis- 
tic ;  and  yet  I  feel  confident  that,  however  revolu- 
tionary single  sentences  may  sound  when  abstracted 
from  their  setting,  they  were  intended  as  merely 
rhetorical  appeals  to  practical  charity  or  the  high 
colors  in  pictures  of  an  ideal  state.  Clement  of 
Alexandria  wrote  a  special  treatise  to  prove  that 
"poverty  is  not  essential  to  salvation,  that  riches  are 
not  a  reason  for  exclusion  from  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  that  it  would  be  irrational  to  suppose  that  Chris- 
tianity demands  the  renunciation  of  property,  be- 
cause in  that  case  beggars  would  be  the  best  of  the 
faithful,    which    is    contradicted    by    experience."  10 

6  As  examples  of  the  apparently  communistic  utterances  of  the  Christian 
Fathers,  lake  the  following  :  — 

"  The  rich  man  is  a  thief."  —  Saint  Basil.  "  The  rich  are  robbers ;  a  kind 
of  equality  must  be  effected  by  making  gifts  out  of  their  abundance.  Bet- 
ter all  things  were  in  common."  —  Saint  Chrysostom.  "  Opulence  is  always 
the  product  of  theft,  committed,  if  not  by  the  actual  possessor,  by  his  ances- 
tors."—  Saint  Jerome.  "Nature  created  community;  private  property  is 
the  offspring  of  usurpation."  —  Saint  Ambrose.  "In  strict  justice,  every- 
thing should  belong  to  all.  Iniquity  alone  has  created  private  property."  — 
Saint  Clement.  Quoted  from  Bossuet  by  Laveleye  in  The  Socialism  of 
To-day,  introduction.     But  see  the  references  below. 

10  Quis  Dives  Salvetur,  vol.  ii,  p.  935,  of  the  writings  of  Clement.  See 
also  the  references  cited  by  Schmidt,  op.  cit.,  where  Augustine,  Ambrose, 


50  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Christianity  taught  mankind  to  endure  poverty  with- 
out despair,  and  to  possess  riches  without  sensuality 
and  pride.  It  has  taught  the  needy  not  to  envy  the 
rich,  and  the  wealthy  not  to  oppress  the  poor.  It 
has  done  more  than  any  other  influence  that  ever 
touched  the  life  of  man  to  obliterate  those  class- 
distinctions  which  create  strife  and  bitterness  in 
the  human  heart,  and  have  made  discord  and  misery 
where  peace  and  happiness  should  reign. 

3.  (1)  Without  doubt  no  single  cause  so  under- 
mined and  disturbed  the  welfare  of  ancient  society 
as  the  relations  between  the  sexes  that  paganism 
developed  and  fostered.  Marriage,  before  Christian- 
ity modified  the  life  of  woman  and  the  opinion  in 
which  she  was  universally  held,  was  considered  a 
necessary  evil,  whose  end  was  the  gratification  of 
passion  and  the  perpetuation  of  the  state.  It  had 
fallen  into  such  discredit  that  celibacy  had  to  be 
heavily  taxed,  in  order  to  sustain  the  growth  of  pop- 
ulation ;  and  illicit  relations  had  rendered  excep- 
tional the  chastity  of  men  and  almost  universal  the 
debasement  of  women.  In  Rome  the  home  had 
ceased  to  exist.  Woman  was  a  helpless  dependent 
either  under  her  father's  care  or  her  husband's 
power.  Her  only  hope  of  freedom  lay  either  in  the 
life  of  a  courtesan  or  in  those  "free  marriages," 
enduring  at  the  option  of  the  parties,  which  custom 
had  made  the  most  common  kind  in  Rome.  Given 
in  marriage  without  her  consent,  expelled  from  her 

Jerome,  Paulinus  of  Nola,  and  many  other  writers  of  the  early  Church  leach 
that  riches  are  not  to  be  condemned  in  themselves,  chap.  v. 


WHAT  HAS   CHRISTIANITY  DONE? 


51 


husband's  house  upon  the  slightest  pretext,  deprived 
of  partnership  in  his  wealth,  under  the  tutelage  of 
his  male  relatives,  without  other  education  than  that 
derived  by  contact  with  her  family,  the  companion  of 
eunuchs  and  female  slaves,  confined  to  the  house  as 
to  a  prison,  treated  as  a  ministrant  to  lust  and  passion, 
valued  only  as  the  necessary  agent  for  the  perpetua- 
tion of  the  race,  timorous  or  frivolous  or  tyrannical 
as  her  circumstances  made  her,  with  no  attractions 
but  those  of  nature,  inevitably  lost  with  nature's 
decay,  without  love  and  respect, — the  pagan  woman 
was  an  object  so  pitiable  that  it  was  often  thought 
a  mercy  to  destroy  her  life  in  infancy.  It  is  the 
voice  of  pagan  antiquity,  rather  than  the  individual 
censor  Metellus  Numidius,  that  utters  the  words 
which  he  pronounced  before  the  assembled  people  : 
"  If  nature  had  allowed  us  to  be  without  women,  we 
should  have  been  relieved  of  very  troublesome 
companions."  n 

(2)  It  is  sometimes  thought  that  the  increased 
respect  for  women,  the  elevation  of  conjugal  affec- 
tion, and  the  higher  standard  of  personal  purity 
which  the  subsequent  centuries  reveal,  are  attribu- 
table to  that  chastity  and  esteem  for  the  gentler  sex 
which  Tacitus  and  others  discovered  and  praised 
among  the  Germanic  races.  A  very  moderate 
degree  of  virtue  might  easily  excite  the  astonishment 
of  a  Roman  in  the  age  of  Tacitus.  A  high  degree 
of  personal  devotion  may  well  be  accorded  to  Ger- 
man women,  but  polygamy  was  not  unknown  among 

11  Quoted  by  Aulus  Gellius,  Opera,  i,  6. 


52  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

the  early  Germans,  the  jealousy  and  tyranny  of 
husbands  often  amounted  to  absolute  cruelty,  and 
woman  in  Germany  was  and  has  been  ever  since, 
with  some  modifications  through  Christian  influence, 
the  faithful  slave  of  man.  Wives  were  bought  and 
adultery  was  compounded  by  the  purchase  of  another 
wife.  Brutality  was  common  in  the  treatment  of 
women,  and  even  to-day  the  bearing  of  burdens, 
subjection  to  the  husband,  and  physical  punishment 
for  conjugal  offences  continue  to  be  customary  in 
Germany  more  conspicuously  than  in  other  lands.12 
(3)  But  it  was  impossible  that  the  being  who  had 
borne  the  world  a  Saviour  could  continue  to  be  de- 
spised and  cruelly  treated  by  those  who  loved  and 
trusted  him.  The  Blessed  Virgin  became  a  holy 
image  in  the  eyes  of  the  Christian  world.  The  doc- 
trines of  Christ  made  no  distinction  of  sex.  All 
were  equal  before  God.  Even  more  responsively 
than  man's,  the  loving  heart  of  woman  turned  to  the 
warmth  and  light  of  the  gospel.  Oppressed  and 
overburdened,  despised  and  spurned,  the  fine  sensi- 
bilities and  large  capacities  of  affection,  that  centuries 
of  degradation  had  not  destroyed,  awoke  to  a  flame 
of  sincere  love  and  adoration,  and  the  disciples  of 
Christ  included  more  women  than  men.  Not  only 
the  high  ideal  of  purity,  the  rigid  laws  of  divorce, 
and  the  tender  regard  for  children,  all  claiming  a 
divine  authority,  but  the  sweet  spiritual  companion- 
ship   strengthened    and    perfected    the   conjugal  tie. 

12  For  the  position  of  woman  under  the  Germanic  tribes,  see  the  full  treat- 
ment in  chapter  xi  of  Brace's  Gesta  Christi. 


WHAT  HAS   CHRISTIANITY  DONE? 


53 


For  the  first  time,  souls,  immortal  in  their  union, 
were  wedded.  Marriage  was  no  longer  looked  upon 
as  a  social  function  merely,  as  it  is  in  a  state  of 
nature.  It  typified  the  union  of  Christ  and  his  pure 
bride,  the  Church.  It  was  celebrated  at  the  altar 
with  the  benediction  of  Christ's  minister,  it  opened 
new  fountains  of  intercourse  and  sympathy,  it  cre- 
ated the  home  with  its  Bible  and  its  daily  prayers, 
it  spread  a  table  upon  which  God's  blessing  was 
invoked  to  rest,  it  demanded  faithfulness  and  devo- 
tion and  propriety  and  gentleness,  it  was  indissoluble 
in  its  nature,  it  led  to  companionship  in  the  endless 
ages  of  a  coming  life,  it  found  its  fruition  in  immor- 
tal beings  and  holy  hopes  by  the  birth  of  children. 
Never  upon  the  earth  did  a  more  stupendous  change 
take  place  in  human  society,  than  when  the  first 
Christian  bridegroom  led  the  first  Christian  bride  to 
the  altar,  touching  her  hand  and  gazing  upon  her 
face,  as  if  they  might  be  the  holy  habitation  of  the 
Mother  of  God  herself  ! 

4.  (1)  It  is  evident  that  Christianity  places  a  high 
value  upon  childhood.  The  love  of  children  was  a 
Hebrew  virtue.  But  the  whole  spirit  of  Christianity 
dignifies  and  exalts  the  child.  The  affections  awak- 
ened in  the  hearts  of  Christian  parents,  the  beautiful 
images  presented  by  the  history  of  the  Saviour's  own 
nativity,  the  touching  picture  of  his  blessing  little 
children,  his  expressed  desire  that  they  might  be 
suffered  to  come  to  him,  and  his  requirement  in 
believers  of  childlike  docility  and  trustfulness,  all 
combined  to  deepen  and   refine  the  regard  for  chil- 


54  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

dren.  The  rights  of  childhood  found  recognition 
with  the  introduction  of  Christianity.  The  paternal 
power  had  before  allowed  the  father  unlimited 
authority  over  his  child,  including  the  right  to  expose 
him  to  death  at  birth,  to  sell  him  as  a  slave,  and  to 
take  his  life.  The  weak  and  the  superfluous  children, 
and  especially  the  girls,  were  often  abandoned  in  this 
manner.  Whoever  found  the  child  might  retain  it 
and  rear  it  as  a  slave.  If  sound  in  body,  this  was 
usually  its  fate.  A  curious  revelation  of  the  incon- 
sistency of  men  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  famous 
words  of  Terence,  which  evoked  thunders  of  ap- 
plause from  the  Roman  audience  that  listened  to  his 
play>  —  "I  am  a  man  ;  nothing  pertaining  to  man  do 
I  think  foreign  from  me," — are  contained  in  a 
comedy  whose  plot  turns  upon  the  survival  of  an 
infant  daughter  commanded  to  be  exposed  to  death 
by  the  very  man  who  uttered  this  sentence.13 

(2)  The  education  of  children  was  not  neglected 
by  antiquity,  but  it  was  by  no  means  universal. 
The  most  careful  education  was  found  among  the 
Hebrews.  Greek  education  aimed  at  aesthetic  cul- 
ture, but  confined  it  entirely  to  the  few,  mostly 
excluding  women  and  slaves,  who  made  up  most  of 
the  population.  Roman  education  was  likewise  re- 
stricted and  had  no  higher  ideal  than  fitness  for 
political  citizenship.     "  The  education  of  paganism," 

13  See  the  Heauton-timorumenos  of  Terence.  The  line  "  Homo  sum ; 
humani  nihil  a  me  alienum  puto,"  according  to  Augustine,  moved  the  whole 
audience  —  though  many  of  the  spectators  were  rude  and  ignorant— to 
thunders  of  applause. 


WHAT  HAS   CHRISTIANITY  DONE?  55 

says  an  able  historian  of  education,  "was  imperfect. 
It  was  controlled  by  wrong  principles  and  confined 
within  too  narrow  limits.  It  did  not  grasp  the  worth 
of  the  individual  in  its  fullness.  It  never  freed 
itself  from  the  narrowness  of  national  character.  .  .  . 
But  with  the  advent  of  Christ  into  the  world,  there 
came  a  new  era  in  history."  M  Dr.  William  T.  Harris, 
speaking  of  this  subject,  says:  "The  influence  of 
such  an  idea  as  that  of  the  divine-human  God  conde- 
scending; to  assume  the  sorrows  and  trials  of  mortal 
life,  all  for  the  sake  of  the  elevation  of  individual 
souls,  the  humblest  and  weakest  as  well  as  the 
mightiest  and  most  exalted,  is  potent  to  transform 
civilization." 15  Henceforth,  the  life  of  a  child  is 
valued  as  a  precious  treasure,  and  the  shaping  of  its 
destiny  is  the  noblest  work  of  man. 

(3)  The  Roman  Empire  enjoyed  an  organized  sys- 
tem of  public  schools,  founded  by  the  emperors,  and 
endowed  by  such  statesmen  as  Hadrian,  Marcus 
Aurelius,  Vespasian,  and  Theodosius.  They  ex- 
tended throughout  all  the  cities  of  the  empire.  The 
early  Christians  availed  themselves  of  them  ;  but  as 
they  were  intended  to  impart  an  education  whose  end 
was  the  State,  and  as  their  studies  consisted  mainly 
in  the  reading  of  pagan  authors,  schools  of  catechu- 
mens were  founded  to  prepare  candidates  for  bap- 
tism. With  the  invasion  of  the  Franks,  the  imperial 
schools  were  closed.  After  an  interval  during  which 
there  seems  to  have  been  little  but  domestic  instruc- 

14  F.  V.  N.  Painter's  History  of  Education,  chap.  iii. 

15  See  the  preface  to  the  work  last  cited. 


56  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

tion,  the  Church  instituted  an  educational  revival. 
The  Church  councils  from  the  sixth  century  on  to 
the  time  of  Charlemagne  repeatedly  urge  the  estab- 
lishment of  parish  and  monastic  schools,  which  seem 
to  have  been  opened  in  great  numbers.  The  palace- 
school  of  Charlemagne  in  which  the  great  Alcuin 
taught,  and  others  founded  under  his  direction,  are 
well  known  in  history.  The  foundations  of  the  great 
universities  were  at  length  laid  by  the  Church.  The 
imperfection  of  all  these  educational  efforts  we  can- 
not fail  to  recognize,  but  we  must  not  forget  the 
world's  indebtedness  to  them.  Christianity,  as  such, 
has  never  antagonized  learning,  but  has  proved  its 
most  faithful  guardian.  Besides  the  conservation  of 
such  knowledge  as  the  ancient  world  possessed, 
Christianity  has  contributed  an  element  wholly  new  in 
the  training  of  the  young.  It  has  impressed  upon 
men  the  value  of  the  individual  and  striven  to  secure 
his  perfection  of  himself  by  the  development  of 
character  and  the  pursuit  of  moral  ideals.  It  has 
also  trained  the  human  mind  to  habits  of  introspec- 
tion and  self-analysis  that  lie  at  the  basis  of  all  true 
philosophy  and  without  which  the  scientific  spirit 
itself  would  possess  neither  form  nor  impulse. 

5.  The  moral  and  intellectual  changes  of  a  people 
soon  show  themselves  in  legislation.  Even  under 
the  pagan  emperors,  Christianity  began  its  amelio- 
rating and  elevating  influence  upon  the  laws.  The 
subject  presents  too  many  details  for  our  narrow 
limits,  but  deserves  a  special  study  in  such  works  as 
"  Gesta  Christi,"  by  Charles  Loring  Brace,  and  "  The 


WHAT  HAS   CHRISTIANITY  DONE'/ 


57 


Social  Results  of  Early  Christianity,"  by  Professor 
Schmidt,  of  Strasburg,  with  their  extensive  refer- 
ences to  authorities.  I  can  simply  enumerate  a  few 
of  the  most  significant  of  these  moral  victories  in 
the  field  of  legislation. 

(i)  The  earliest  and  most  important  effect  was 
upon  personal  status.  Constantine  removed  the 
paternal  power  of  life  and  death  and  rendered  the 
killing  of  a  child  a  crime  equal  to  parricide.  He 
also  extended  the  son's  rights  of  property.  Julian 
forbade  immoderate  penalties  to  be  inflicted  upon 
children.  Daughters  were  endowed  with  heirship. 
Divorce  was  restricted  to  a  few  causes,  as  when  a 
husband  is  a  murderer,  a  magician,  or  a  violator  of 
tombs,  or  the  wife  an  adulteress  or  guilty  of  evil  prac- 
tices. Civil  equality  was  established  between  hus- 
band and  wife,  and  adultery  was  punished  with  death. 
Chastity  was  required  by  the  laws  of  Justinian, 
though  he  weakened  again  the  legislation  on  divorce. 
The  unnatural  vices  so  frequent  in  antiquity  that 
Cicero  said  it  was  a  disgrace  not  to  indulge  in  them, 
vices  unnamed  and  unknown  in  the  modern  Christian 
world,  were  severely  punished  under  Theodosius. 
Numerous  ameliorations  were  introduced  into  the 
life  of  the  slave.  To  poison  or  throw  him  to  wild 
beasts  was  made  homicide.  Liberty  was  declared 
inalienable,  so  that  no  free  child  could  become  a 
slave.  The  marriage  relation  between  slaves  was 
regarded  as  indissoluble  by  separation.  Every  facility 
for  liberating  slaves  became  the  policy  of  the  law. 
Under   Basil    (S67)    the    slaves    of    a   master  whose 


58  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

property  reverted  to  the  State  became  free ;  for  so 
ran  the  law :  "  It  would  be  an  outrage  to  the  holiness 
of  God,  to  the  wisdom  of  the  prince,  and  to  the 
conscience  of  man,  not  to  permit  the  death  of  the 
master  to  break  the  yoke  of  servitude."  16 

(2)  The  laws  relating  to  personal  conduct  were 
equally  revolutionized.  The  stranger,  who  had  always 
been  considered  an  enemy  by  the  German  tribes  be- 
fore their  conversion,  the  wrecked  at  sea,  who  had  been 
regarded  as  legitimate  prey,  and  whose  vessels  were 
sometimes  lured  to  destruction  upon  the  rocks  for 
the  sake  of  booty,  were  brought  within  the  protection 
of  justice.  Private  feuds,  which  had  raged  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  requiring  the  avenging  of 
blood  by  a  member  of  the  family,  were  commuted  by 
payments  of  money  or  adjusted  by  judicial  tribunals. 
"  The  Peace  of  God  "  waved  the  white  flag  of  truce 
over  bloody  battlefields  and  called  the  combatants 
to  the  silent  hush  of  prayer.  Earlier  than  this  the 
horrible  conflicts  of  the  gladiators  had  been  brought 
to  a  termination.  Honorius  vainly  tried  to  stop 
these  inhuman  shows  by  the  degradation  of  the 
gladiatorial  profession.  At  last  (404)  an  eastern 
monk,  Telemachus,  crossed  the  seas,  and  at  Rome 
threw  himself  into  the  arena  between  the  swords  of 
the  contestants.  The  fury  of  the  crowd  demanded 
his  immediate  death,  but  his  blood  was  the  last  that 
flowed  from  human  veins  in  that  Flavian  amphithea- 

i«  A  very  discriminating  and  compendious  estimate  of  the  influence  of 
Christianity  upon  Roman  legislation  may  be  found  in  Morey's  Outlines  of 
Roman  Law,  period  iv,  chap.  ii. 


WHAT  HAS    CHRISTIANITY  DONE?  59 

tre,  whose  silent,  crumbling  walls  stand  as  a  monu- 
ment to  this  fearless  martyr.  An  imperial  edict 
suppressed  this  cruel  sport  forever.17 

6.  We  can  barely  mention  the  amelioration  of 
punishment  that  Christianity  has  introduced.  "  No 
classic  legislator,  so  far  as  we  can  recall,"  says  Brace, 
"had  ever  cared  for  that  unfortunate  class  —  the 
prisoners."  Prison  reform  began  under  Constantine. 
The  accused  were  to  be  examined  without  delay,  they 
were  to  be  treated  in  a  humane  manner,  persons 
under  arrest  were  not  to  be  tortured,  and  prisons 
were  required  to  have  air  and  light.  Paul's  confine- 
ment in  that  gloomy,  subterranean  Mamertine  prison 
at  Rome  may  have  been,  in  part,  in  its  results,  vica- 
rious suffering  for  the  accused  of  the  future.  In  all 
of  this  was  that  exalted  view  of  man  which  Christ 
had  taught,  and  God's  image  was  not  to  be  marred. 
"  Let  those  who  are  condemnedt"  reads  a  sentence 
of  Constantine's,  "  not  be  branded  on  the  forehead, 
that  the  majesty  of  the  face  formed  in  the  image  of 
celestial  beauty  be  not  dishonored."  18  But  the  glory 
of  Christianity  is  not  shown  in  prison  reform,  ancient 
or  modern,  though  it  is  great,  so  much  as  in  the 
changed  theory  of  all  punitive  treatment.  The  re- 
form and  salvation  of  the  criminal  are  aims  exclu- 
sively Christian  in  their  origin.  If  the  sentiment  of 
our  age  has  adopted  them  as  its  ideals  in  punish- 
ment, it  is  because  of  that  latent  and  unconscious 
Christianity  that  is  working  like  leaven  in  the  hearts 

17  Theodoret,  Historia  Ecclesiastica,  v,  26. 

18  Codex  Theodosii,  liber  xv,  title  8,  1. 


60  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

of  men,  even  while  their  lips  are  framing  a  denial  of 
its  presence. 

We  cannot  linger  longer  to  recount  what  Chris- 
tianity has  done  for  society.  If  any  think  that  much 
of  our  social  progress  can  be  attributed  to  other 
causes,  a  survey  of  the  non-Christian  world  will  dis- 
pel that  illusion.  Wherever  Christian  influence  has 
not  penetrated,  the  pre-Christian  social  conditions 
still  exist.  Something  depends  upon  natural  temper- 
ament, indeed,  in  the  reformation  of  racial  character- 
istics, and  few  vices  or  defects  of  social  life  are 
universal.  But  nowhere  is  there  a  true  conception 
of  human  worth  and  dignity,  where  Christ's  teach- 
ings have  not  been  felt.  A  contempt  for  labor,  with 
its  accompaniment  of  human  servitude  ;  the  regard 
of  caste  and  class-distinctions,  with  violent  contrasts 
of  wealth  and  poverty  unmodified  by  pity  and 
charity ;  the  degradation  of  woman  and  disregard  of 
personal  chastity ;  the  indifference  to  children  and 
their  continuance  in  ignorance  and  vice  ;  the  in- 
equality of  legislation  and  the  dominion  of  personal 
hate  and  cruel  revenge, — these  are  the  social  phe- 
nomena with  which  we  expect  to  meet  whenever  we 
overstep  the  boundaries  of  Christian  lands  and  enter 
the  regions  where  the  life  and  doctrines  of  Jesus  are 
unknown. 

That  his  power  is  not  greater  than  it  is  among 
ourselves  is  testimony  to  the  magnitude  of  the  work 
his  teaching  has  accomplished  in  the  world  ;  for  it 
has  met  with  the  same  and  even  greater  obstacles, 
and  yet  it  has  triumphantly  surmounted  them  in  its 


WHAT  HAS    CHRISTIANITY  DONE?  6 1 

steady  but  not  unimpeded  progress.  When  we  con- 
sider how,  in  these  centuries,  it  has  changed  the  life 
and  institutions  of  society;  how  it  has  given  labor  a 
rehabilitation,  consecrated  wealth  to  human  benefit, 
honored  and  ennobled  woman,  crowned  the  head  of 
childhood  with  the  coronet  of  love  and  knowledge, 
swept  away  traces  of  barbarism  from  the  codes  of 
law  and  tempered  them  with  justice  and  mercy,  let 
sunlight  and  hope  into  the  cells  of  the  prison  and 
broken  the  fetters  of  the  slave,  —  may  we  not  look 
for  its  solution  of  the  passing  problems  of  the  pres- 
ent, for  its  Author  has  said :  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway,  even  unto  the  end  oi  the  world"? 


III. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    PROBLEMS 
OF   LABOR. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  PROBLEMS  OF   LABOR. 


I.    THE   EVOLUTION   OF   INDUSTRY, 
i.    Eras  of  Industrial  Progress: 
(i)  The  Era  of  Hunting; 

(2)  The  Era  of  Cattle  Raising ; 

(3)  The  Era  of  Agriculture  ; 

(4)  The  Era  of  the  Mechanic  Arts. 

2.  The  Correlation  of  Wants  and  Wealth. 

3.  The  Causes  of  Wealth  and  Labor. 

4.  Progressive  and  Improgressive  Labor. 

5 .  The  Division  of  Labor. 

6.  The  Invention  of  Machinery. 

II.  THE  CONTEMPORARY  PROBLEMS  OF  LABOR. 

1.  The  Problem  of  Increasing  Wealth. 

(1)  Is  the  Increase  of  Wealth  Desirable? 

(2)  Wealth  but  a  Means  to  Life  as  an  End. 

(3)  The  Increase  of  the  Laborer's  Productivity. 

(4)  The  Avoidance  of  Waste. 

2.  The  Problem  of  the  Laborer's  Rights. 

(1)  The  Foundation  of  Human  Rights. 

(2)  The  Right  to  Self  and  One's  Powers. 

(3)  The  Right  to  the  Product  of  One's  Powers. 

(4)  Wealth  as  a  Social  Product. 

(5)  The  Ground  of  Taxation. 

(6)  The  Right  of  Property. 

(7)  The  Right  of  Property  in  Land. 

(8)  The  Universal  Stewardship. 


III. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  PROBLEMS  OF  LABOR. 

I. 

i.  The  first  problem  of  society  is  that  of  subsist- 
ence, or  the  production  of  those  commodities  that 
contribute  to  life.  The  first  cry  of  every  human 
being  is  the  bitter  wail  of  hunger.  But,  as  for  each 
individual  added  to  our  race  provision  is  made,  with- 
out his  own  exertion,  for  the  satisfaction  of  his  earli- 
est needs,  so  also  it  was  in  the  infancy  of  humanity 
for  the  first  wants  of  our  species.  Originating,  prob- 
ably, in  some  fertile  and  temperate  region  of  south- 
ern Asia,  the  first  men  were  able  to  satisfy  their 
hunger  with  the  spontaneous  fruits  of  the  generous 
earth,  and  a  genial  sky  rendered  superfluous  both 
clothing  and  habitations.  I  know  not  how  great  pro- 
gress in  the  tilling  of  the  earth  the  biblical  narrative 
intends  to  ascribe  to  the  Adam  of  Genesis,  but  its 
own  subsequent  account  of  the  origin  of  metallurgy 
justifies  oiiv  belief  that  the  Edenic  implements  were 
of  a  very  pt  imitive  character. 

(i)  In  the  course  of  the  migration  and  dispersion 
of  men,  in  which  the  command  to  "  multiply  and 
replenish  the  earth  "  was  executed,  impinging  of  the 
population  upon  the  food-supply,  as  well  as  the  rigors 


66  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

of  more  severe  climates,  involved  the  use  of  the 
flesh  of  animals  for  food  and  of  their  skins  for  cloth- 
ing, while  caves  in  the  earth,  natural  or  artificial, 
afforded  the  protection  of  dwellings.  Thus  men 
found  themselves  existing  in  the  era  of  hunting. 

(2)  The  perception  of  the  waste  involved  and  the 
uncertainty  of  a  sufficient  supply,  when  animals  were 
killed  at  random  in  a  wild  state,  must  early  have  sug- 
gested their  domestication,  and  we  may  picture  to 
ourselves  the  patriarchal  family  with  its  flocks  and 
herds  roaming  over  the  pasture-lands,  subsisting  prin- 
cipally upon  the  fatlings  of  the  flocks  and  dwelling 
in  the  movable  tents  adapted  to  the  nomadic  life  of 
the  era  of  cattle-raising. 

(3)  Again,  the  physical  requirements  of  the  growth 
of  population,  coupled  with  contentions  arising  con- 
cerning the  occupation  of  the  soil,  like  that  reported 
between  Abraham  and  Lot,  ultimately  introduced 
the  permanent  demarkation  of  the  land  into  separate 
holdings,  and  the  establishment  of  villages  for  resi- 
dence. This  necessitated  the  cultivation  of  the  more 
limited  apportionment  of  the  soil,  in  order  to  produce 
by  art  what  was  not  afforded  by  nature,  and  thus 
began  the  agricultural  era. 

(4)  Finally,  the  exigencies  of  defence  against  the 
encroachment  of  hostile  neighbors,  together  with  the 
demand  for  agricultural  implements,  required  the 
equipment  of  armies,  the  erection  of  walled  towns 
for  refuge,  the  construction  of  engines  of  war  and  the 
working  of  metals,  with  its  attendant  division  of 
labor  and  organization  of  military,  civil,  and  political 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  TAB  OR.  6  J 

institutions,  which  characterize  the  era  of  mechanic 
arts.  The  arts  thus  rendered  necessary,  after  re- 
maining for  centuries  subsidiary  to  the  ends  which 
first  called  them  into  being,  have  at  last  been  brought 
to  minister  directly  and  chiefly  to  the  desires  of  the 
people ;  the  militant  spirit  has  become  secondary  to 
the  industrial,  and  the  principal  trait  of  contempo- 
rary society  is  the  industrialism  that  creates  its  enor- 
mous wealth  and  whose  interests  evoke  its  highest 
solicitude. 

2.  Civilization  begins  in  man's  needs  and  is  meant 
to  afford  him  satisfaction.  He  is  never  quite  satis- 
fied, and  yet  he  is  not  of  necessity  unhappy  in  any 
stage  of  his  industrial  progress.  The  growth  of  his 
wants  is  correlated  to  the  increase  of  his  wealth. 
The  sight  of  wealth  produces  new  wants.  The  Paci- 
fic Islanders  are  not  dissatisfied  with  life.  Contact 
with  civilized  men,  however,  often  generates  in  them 
new  desires  and  material  civilization  moves  along  this 
line  of  new  wants  created  by  the  desire  of  new 
wealth. 

It  is  universally  conceded  that  men  were  never  in 
the  history  of  the  world  so  well  supplied  with  com- 
modities of  every  kind  as  they  are  to-day.  The  fact 
is  capable  of  statistical  proof,  but  it  is  too  apparent 
to  require  the  time  and  trouble.1  The  cause  of  the 
present  industrial  discontent  is  the  confrontation  of 
wealth    and    poverty,  with  its    startling  contrast   of 

i  For  the  statistical  proof  of  this  statement  see  Giffen's  Progress  of  the 
Working  Classes,  pp.  5,  26;  Stebbin's  Progress  from  Poverty,  pp.  7,  9,  and 
PP-  3°.  33  '■  ar>d  Mulhall's  History  of  Prices,  pp.  130,  133. 


68  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

luxury  on  the  one  side  and  misery  on  the  other. 
Men  who  work  as  common  laborers  to-day  enjoy 
more  of  the  physical  comforts  of  life  than  the  men 
and  women  who  landed  on  Plymouth'  Rock.  They 
are  not  so  happy  or  so  contented,  and  the  reason  is 
that  they  think  they  have  not  their  fair  proportion 
of  wealth. 

3.  The  ultimate  cause  of  wealth  is  labor,  in  its 
wide  sense  of  human  activity  for  the  satisfaction  of 
wants.  This  is  an  economic  commonplace.  But 
the  economists  seldom  discuss  the  question,  What  is 
the  cause  of  labor  ?  Mallock  says  it  is  the  desire 
for  social  inequality.2  This  is  a  true  but  not  a  com- 
plete answer.  Men  labor  primarily  to  sustain  exist- 
ence. When  they  have  the  means  of  doing  this, 
they  cease  from  labor,  unless  they  have  an  additional 
impulse.  They  have  this  in  the  desire  of  social 
inequality.  They  see  others  enjoying  more  than 
themselves.  They  desire  to  rise  into  the  superior 
class.  This  desire  renders  them  industrious  and 
economical.  By  more  exertion  and  less  immediate 
indulgence  they  hope  to  arrive  at  a  superior  condition. 
Progress  has  followed  this  line.  It  results  in  the 
acquisition  of  commodities  and  possessions  that 
elevate  one's  estate.  Such  accumulations  are  "  cap- 
ital," because  they  are  not  only  the  products  of  the 
"head"  (caput),  but  constitute  a  "head,"  or  source, 
of  further  advantage. 

4.  If  we  ask  in  what  manner  capital  is  produced, 
we  find  that  it  is  not  simply  the  product  of  labor,  but 

*  Mallock's  Social  Equality,  chap.  iv. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LABOR.  69 

of  a  particular  kind  of  labor.  There  is  labor  which 
is  wholly  improgressive,  whose  whole  result  is  neces- 
sary for  the  subsistence  of  the  worker.  A  man  who 
employs  the  whole  day  hunting  his  dinner  with  a  bow 
and  arrow  in  the  forest  never  acquires  any  capital. 
He  consumes  the  product  of  his  day's  labor  and  in 
the  morning  must  resume  his  hunting.  But  there  is 
another  kind  of  labor.  It  is  progressive.  The  man 
who  invents  a  trap  may  catch  every  day  what  will 
last  for  two  days.  He  may  give  away  the  subsist- 
ence of  one  day  to  another  man  who  is  willing  to  use 
the  time  for  his  service.  All  capital  is  the  result  of 
this  kind  of  labor.  It  requires  some  skill.  The 
more  skilful  it  is,  the  more  capital  it  will  produce. 
A  man  with  a  very  fertile  brain  devises  ways  to  obtain 
in  one  day  the  food  for  many  days.  This  gives  him 
command  over  as  many  men  who  are  capable  only  of 
"improgressive  labor  as  he  can  feed.  They  would  as 
soon  serve  him  as  to  hunt  food.  If  he  assures  them 
subsistence  in  advance  and  with  certainty,  they  will 
probably  prefer  the  certainty  of  subsistence  from 
him  to  the  uncertainty  of  subsistence  without  him. 
His  knowledge  and  enterprise  make  him  a  master. 
Looking  back  over  human  history  we  are  compelled 
to  refer  all  industrial  progress  and  all  increase  of 
wealth  to  such  enterprise  and  knowledge.  Civil- 
ization has  been  rendered  possible  through  the 
improvement  of  men.  Universal  ignorance  gives  us 
savagery,  idleness,  and  famine.  Intelligent  chiefs 
give  us  barbarism,  slavery,  and  poverty.  An  edu- 
cated class  gives  us  civilization,  free  labor,  and  plenty. 


JO         SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Educated  masses  give  us  enlightenment,  organized 
labor,  and  abundance.  Universal  education  will  give 
us  refinement,  intellectualized  labor,  and  wealth.  If 
we  examine  these  superimposed  planes  of  social  exist- 
ence we  shall  see  that  the  elevation  of  man  has  in- 
creased wealth  ;  that  the  ascent  of  man  has  produced 
the  multiplication  of  his  possessions  ;  that  a  condition 
of  ignorance  is  a  state  in  which  the  mind  values  tilings 
only,  and  that  a  condition  of  universal  education  is  a 
state  in  which  the  chief  value  is  placed  on  man.  I 
infer,  therefore,  that  the  influence  that  has  done 
most  to  emphasize  the  value  of  man  and  afford  an 
elevated  conception  of  his  nature,  is  the  influence 
that  has  clone  most  to  create  the  wealth  of  the  world. 
That  influence,  we  have  already  seen,  is  the  influ- 
ence of  Jesus.  I  take  it  to  be  a  principal  cause  of 
the  world's  wealth.  The  conclusion  is  justified  by 
the  fact  that  the  wealthiest  nations  of  the  earth  are 
the  Christian  nations.  This  leads  me  to  think  that 
Christianity  has  an  important  relation  to  the  prob- 
lems of  labor. 

5.  A  principal  cause  of  wealth  is  the  division  of 
labor.  It  is  based  on  the  variation  of  aptitude  and 
ability  to  accomplish  results  and  the  apportionment  of 
tasks  to  those  adapted  to  them.  Its  beginnings  are 
too  remote  for  discovery,  but  we  may  readily  imagine 
them  in  the  first  human  family.  Man  would  natu- 
rally undertake  the  heavier  and  more  active  work  of 
securing  food.  Woman  would  assume  the  lighter 
task  of  its  preparation,  in  conjunction  with  the 
maternal  care  of   children.     But    our   knowledge   of 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LABOR.  J  I 

savage  life  does  not  warrant  this  natural  assumption. 
Among  the  savage  peoples  we  invariably  find  the 
whole  burden  of  labor  thrown  upon  woman,  the 
least  qualified  to  bear  it,  while  man  spends  his  days 
in  idle  enjoyment.  When  the  plane  of  existence 
is  reached  where  more  labor  is  necessary,  in  order 
to  supply  a  greater  number  of  wants,  we  find  that 
those  who  labor  are  again  not  the  strongest,  but  the 
weakest,  the  slaves,  whose  inferior  powers  render 
them  the  more  easily  reduced  to  subjection.  If  we 
examine  history,  so  far  as  it  throws  light  upon  the 
subject,  we  discover  everywhere  the  same  abnormal 
phenomenon  —  the  strong  idle,  and  the  weak  com- 
pelled to  labor.  The  only  exception  is  met  when 
we  reach  those  times  and  those  lands  where  the 
influence  of  Christ  has  been  felt.  There  we  find 
labor  accounted  honorable,  woman  more  generally 
released  from  the  burdens  of  toil,  slaves  progress- 
ively liberated  from  servitude,  and  strong,  free  men 
voluntarily  joining  in  the  "rehabilitation  of  labor." 
But  compulsory  labor  is  the  least  progressive  and  the 
least  enterprising  kind.  All  truly  progressive  labor 
is  free.  Accordingly,  we  find  the  lands  and  times 
that  have  endured  the  curse  of  slavery  suffering  also 
from  the  curse  of  poverty.  From  this,  also,  I  infer 
that  the  influence  of  Jesus  is  a  vital  element  in  the 
labor  and  industrial  life  of  the  world. 

6.  Another  factor  in  the  production  of  wealth  is 
the  improvement  of  tools,  the  invention  of  machines, 
and  the  application  of  natural  forces  to  production 
or  invention.     It  creates  at  one  stroke  a  power  that 


72  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

is  equivalent  to  a  thousand  men.  It  extends  the 
emancipation  of  the  slave  by  freeing  men  from  the 
slavery  of  muscular  toil.  It  multiplies  the  commod- 
ities of  life  until  those  that  in  former  clays  were 
the  luxuries  of  the  few  become  the  universal  posses- 
sions of  the  people.  This  is  the  result  of  progressive, 
not  at  all  of  itnprogressive,  labor.  It  gives  to  every 
one,  who  has  anything  to  buy  with,  an  unearned 
increment  for  his  money  too  great  for  estimation. 
We  read  of  the  "unearned  increment  of  land"  and 
of  the  "  unearned  increment  of  capital."  There  is 
also  an  immense  "unearned  increment  of  labor." 
I  do  not  say  that  all  the  inventions  of  our  modern 
era  were  conceived  with  the  sole  purpose  of  lighten- 
ing the  burdens  of  men,  but  it  is  an  incontestable 
fact  that  thousands  of  them  have  originated  from 
the  desire  that  a  difficult  an:l  wearisome  work  might 
be  made  easier.  It  can,  however,  be  justly  main- 
tained that  inventions  would  be  wholly  without 
motive  of  any  kind  under  conditions  of  slavery. 
The  master  has  never  cared  to  apply  his  intelligence 
for  lightening  the  burden  of  slaves,  and  the  slave 
could  not  thus  lighten  his  burden.  The  psychology 
of  progress  explains  the  history  of  progress.  If  non- 
Christian  lands  have  produced  no  labor-saving 
machinery,  it  is  because  oppression  did  not  care, 
and  servitude  had  not  the  power,  to  lighten  human 
toil.  For  this  reason,  again,  I  affirm  that  the  influ- 
ence of  Jesus  is  the  life  of  industry. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   TAB  OR.  73 

II. 

There  are  two  contemporary  problems  of  labor 
that  deserve  our  consideration.  They  are  the  prob- 
lem of  increasing  wealth  and  the  problem  of  the 
laborer's  rights. 

1.  Is  it  desirable  to  continue  the  increase  of 
wealth  and  how  can  it  be  increased,  if  desirable  ? 
(1)  The  acquisitive  faculty  in  man  does  not  hesitate 
to  answer  the  first  part  of  this  double  question  in 
the  affirmative.  Yes,  wealth  is  good,  men  generally 
respond.  And  what  has  Christianity  to  say  ?  Is  it 
possible  that  Christianity  can  be  a  principal  cause  in 
the  production  of  wealth,  as  we  have  shown  it  to  be, 
and  at  the  same  time  censure  that  increase  ?  Un- 
doubtedly Christ  rebukes  rich  men  for  their  greed; 
and  reminds  them  that  material  wealth  is  not  the 
highest  good,  but  does  he  anywhere  condemn  the 
multiplication  of  commodities  to  be  used  for  the  well- 
being  of  man  ?  I  have  failed  to  find  in  his  doctrines 
any  such  condemnation.  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
everywhere  assumed  by  him  that  material  goods  are 
really  good.  Lazarus  was  in  pitiable  lack  of  them, 
and  Dives  had  the  full  enjoyment  of  them,  and 
Christ  recognizes  the  fact  that  the  condition  of  Dives 
was  a  more  desirable  condition  than  that  of  Lazarus, 
apart  from  the  moral  qualities  and  relations  of  the 
two  men.  The  shame  of  the  contrast  was  that  Laza- 
ius  lacked  while  Dives  was  without  compassion.  If 
one  may  be  "diligent  in  business,"  and  at  the  same 
time  "serving  the  Lord,"  the  fruits  of  diligence  cannot 


74         SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

be  morally  undesirable.  It  is  impossible  for  men  to 
develop  their  higher  powers,  to  find  opportunity  for 
self-improvement,  to  realize  the  conditions  of  health 
and  beneficence,  without  the  possession  of  some 
measure  of  wealth.  Wealth,  then,  is  good,  its 
increase  is  desirable,  from  a  Christian  point  of  view. 
(2)  But  there  is  an  important  limitation  of  this 
truth.  Wealth  is  a  means,  not  an  end.  The  whole 
truth  is  expressed  in  the  words  of  Christ  :  "  A  man's 
life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things 
that  he  possesseth."  The  really  wealthy  man  is  not 
the  man  who  has  most,  but  the  man  who  can  use  most, 
who  can  make  things  most  subsidiary  to  his  life,  who 
most  completely  realizes  his  own  and  other's  weal. 
Christ  enlarges,  ennobles,  and  transfigures  the  con- 
ception of  wealth.  The  lower  conception  excludes  all 
that  is  noblest,  by  excluding  all  that  is  really  human. 
Possession  is  a  graded  and  an  evanescent  power.  The 
barn-builder  of  Christ's  parable  never  completed  his 
granaries.  No  matter  what  material  transformation 
it  undergoes,  wealth  can  never  be  preserved  unless  it 
contributes  to  life.  The  sooner  it  does  so  the  better. 
Not  necessarily  to  be  immediately  consumed,  but  to 
be  made  the  instrument  of  life.  A  workshop  or  a 
library  enters  into  life,  if  it  be  rightly  placed,  but  a 
pile  of  unused  gold  is  no  better  than  a  pile  of  unused 
stones.  It  may  be  riches,  but  it  is  not  wealth.  But 
neither  is  the  workshop  or  the  library  wealth,  unless 
skilful  hands  or  active  minds  come  into  relation  with 
them.  There  is  the  ring  of  Christ's  own  truth  in 
Ruskin's  words  :  "  There  is  no  wealth  but  life  ;  life, 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   LABOR.  75 

with  its  powers  of  love,  of  joy,  of  admiration.  That 
country  is  the  richest  which  nourishes  the  greatest 
number  of  noble  and  happy  human  beings  ;  that  man 
is  richest  who,  having  perfected  the  functions  of  his 
own  life  to  the  utmost,  has  also  the  widest  helpful 
influence,  both  personal  and  by  means  of  his  posses- 
sions, over  the  lives  of  others."  3 

(3)  The  increase  of  wealth  is  best  realized  by 
whatever  increases  the  productivity  of  the  laborer. 
Whatever  lifts  a  man  out  of  the  sphere  of  improgress- 
ive  labor  and  places  him  'on  the  plane  of  progressive 
labor,  increases  wealth.  It  does  it  directly  by  enlarg- 
ing his  life,  and  indirectly  by  making  him  a  creator 
of  wealth.  This  idea  is  entering  into  the  minds  of 
business  men  as  they  ponder  over  these  problems  of 
labor.  Says  a  recent  writer  on  this  subject,  after  a 
survey  of  the  history  of  industry  :  "  Labor  must  be 
treated  at  least  as  well  as  any  other  source  of  power. 
A  steam-engine  is  well  housed,  well  fed  with  fuel, 
well  oiled,  and  well  governed  by  a  competent  engi- 
neer. For  its  economic  use,  it  must  work  smoothly 
and  continuously.  We  must  supply  it  with  all  that 
its  material  constitution  requires.  The  economic  use 
of  the  horse  demands  that  he  be  well  fed,  well 
housed,  and  well  treated.  We  must  supply  him  with 
all  that  his  physical  nature  demands  for  its  healthy 
working.  In  like  manner,  the  economic  use  of  the 
man  requires  that  all  the  conditions  of  his  wellbeing 
shall  be  respected.  His  physical  nature  must  be 
supported  by  good  food,  clean  and  comfortable  hous- 

3  Ruskin's  Unto  This  Last,  Essay  iv,  Ad  Valorem. 


76  OCTAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

ing,  and  all  other  good  sanitary  conditions ;  but  he 
has  an  intellectual  being  as  well  ;  its  health  must  be 
provided  for  by  education,  by  the  literature,  at  least, 
of  his  business  ;  for  he  is  a  moral  power,  sensitive  to 
right  and  wrong.  He  must  be  influenced  to  right 
and  withdrawn  from  wrong,  or  you  will  have  a 
destroyer,  not  a  worker.  But  is  the  economic  ground 
the  only  one  on  which  this  equitable  treatment  of 
the  laborer  is  necessary  ?  Nay,  this  man  is  your 
brother."4  I  know  a  village  in  Pennsylvania,  owned 
by  a  family  of  Christian  men,  where  all  these  princi- 
ples, and  even  more  extended  applications  of  them 
than  is  here  suggested,  have  been  in  practice  for 
years.  The  neat  houses  with  their  pretty  gardens 
and  flowers  in  the  windows,  with  instruments  of 
music  in  the  spare-rooms,  the  neat  schoolhouse  and 
commodious  church,  have  been  built  for  the  workmen 
upon  a  model  plan.  During  a  period  when  other  fac- 
tories of  like  kind  were  almost  universally  closed  on 
account  of  low  prices,  this  community  went  steadily 
on  with  its  manufacture.  No  man  left  work  on 
account  of  lowered  wages,  no  time  was  lost,  and  at  the 
end  the  goods  were  ready  for  the  high  market  for 
which  they  had  been  reserved.  Experience  has  in 
that  establishment  added  its  evidence  to  faith,  that 
care  for  the  workman  brings  its  own  reward.  I  need 
not  add  that  the  proprietors  are  Christian  men  and 
believe  that  Christian  principles  have  relation  to 
industrial  problems. 

4  The  Labor  Problem,  edited  by  W.  E.  Barnes,  chap,  ii,  by  J.  A.  Water- 
worth. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LABOR.  J  J 

(4)  Another  element  in  the  increase  of  wealth  is 
the  avoidance  of  waste.  This  opens  a  broad  subject. 
It  is  impossible  to  treat  it  exhaustively.  There  is, 
first  of  all,  the  waste  of  war  and  its  accessories.  It 
is  probably  true  that  standing  armies  and  navies  are 
necessary  in  the  present  political  condition  of  the 
world,  and  that  the  most  certain  way  to  preserve 
peace  is  to  have  well-trained  soldiers  and  officers  and 
implements  of  destruction  so  terrific  that  the  mere 
thought  of  their  destructiveness  is  sufficient  to  pre- 
vent their  actual  employment.  But,  at  the  same 
time,  the  cost  of  sustaining  a  nation  on  a  war-footing 
is  so  enormous  that  it  is  a  serious  drainage  on  indus- 
try. First,  vast  numbers  of  men  are  abstracted  from 
the  ranks  of  labor  to  serve  as  soldiers  and  officers, 
and  then,  besides  their  support,  the  preparation  of 
costly  munitions  of  war  is  required  of  those  who  are 
left  for  actual  production.  Within  the  last  thirty 
years  the  debts  of  the  governments  of  Europe  have 
increased  nine  billions  of  dollars.  This  is  owing  to 
four  great  wars  which  have  had  no  connection  with 
the  rights  or  progress  of  man,  but  have  been  waged 
to  maintain  the  "balance  of  power."  The  present 
aggregate  debts  are  twenty  billions.  The  armies  and 
navies  and  interest  on  debts  absorb  fourteen  hundred 
millions  annually,  of  which  only  a  fraction  is  neces- 
sary. The  combined  cost  of  civil  service  and  educa- 
tion is  about  one  fourth  of  the  cost  of  this  luxury  of 
the"  balance  of  power."  This  superfluity  is  an  ex- 
action of  twenty-seven  dollars  from  each  laborer  and 
of  forty-five  dollars  from  each  family  of  five.    In  Italy 


J 8  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

it  abstracts  fifty  dollars,  in  England  sixty-two  dol- 
lars, and  in  France  sixty-five  dollars  from  each  family. 
It  is  a  cruel  wrong.  Christianity  applied  to  practice 
would  have  saved  it.  It  would  have  settled  the  wars 
by  arbitration  and  capitalized  their  cost  as  public 
wealth.  The  United  States  presents  the  picture  of 
a  federation  of  commonwealths  with  greater  territo- 
rial extent  than  that  of  Europe,  without  standing 
armies,  and  with  a  navy  that  is  a  mere  jest.  The 
civil  war  cost  more  than  the  purchase  of  the  slaves 
would  have  required,  to  take  no  account  of  blood 
and  suffering.  The  settlement  of  our  claim  against 
England  by  Christian  methods  is  one  of  the  triumphs 
of  human  history.  Christianity  would  carry  the 
same  method  into  industrial  warfare,  the  perpetual 
struggle  that  at  once  embitters  and  demoralizes  men 
and  impedes  the  creation  of  wealth.  It  declares  that 
industry  is  not,  in  its  ideal,  a  selfish  struggle  for 
existence,  a  desperate  battle  of  landlord  and  tenant, 
of  employer  and  employed,  a  conflict  of  interests 
that  forever  clash  and  tend  to  annihilate  one  another. 
It  indicates  how  this  problem  of  wealth-creation  can 
be  solved  and  the  only  method  of  solution.  It  says 
to  arrogant  landlordism,  your  true  interest  lies  in 
having  happy  and  prosperous  tenants ;  to  envious 
labor,  your  hope  rests  in  a  universal  progress  led  by 
enterprise  and  sustained  by  capital ;  to  mercenary 
capital,  your  security  and  permanence  depend  upon 
the  activity  of  labor  and  the  pacific  participation  of 
all  in  its  rewards ;  to  avaricious  enterprise,  your 
dreams  of   fortune  can  become  realities  only  when 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  TAB  OR.  Jg 

large  classes  of  men  are  able  to  enjoy  your  products. 
Therefore,  cease  the  strife  which,  however  it  may 
end,  must  eventuate  in  some  one's  overthrow,  and 
the  emergence  from  the  smoke  of  desolation  of  the 
more  pathetic  question,  What  shall  society  do  with 
the  vanquished  ? 

2.  Perhaps  a  deeper  problem,  and  one  more 
difficult  to  solve  than  that  of  increasing  wealth,  is 
the  problem  of  the  laborer's  rights,  (i)  I  say  the 
"/adorer's  rights,"  because  there  are  no  "rights  of 
labor."  Rights  belong  only  to  persons,  to  men  as 
moral  beings.  And  whatever  "  rights  "  the  laborer 
has,  he  has  in  virtue  of  his  manhood,  not  in  virtue  of 
his  labor.  It  is  difficult  to  escape  class  distinctions 
and  the  idea  of  class  privileges.  Rights  do  not  be- 
long to  classes,  but  to  men.  What  is  it  in  a  man 
that  entitles  him  to  rights  ?  It  is  the  capacity  for 
duty.  He  is  a  being  whose  nature  has  ends  ;  it  is  his 
duty  to  realize  those  ends,  and  he  is  morally  free  to 
realize  them.  Suppose  he  does  not.  Then  he  does 
not  realize  his  manhood.  Manhood  is  not  a  mechani- 
cal product  of  nature.  Nature  furnishes  capacities 
and  faculties,  but  manhood  is  the  self-determined 
product  of  the  man  himself.  To  realize  manhood, 
one  must  be  free.  The  essence  of  personality  is 
freedom.  Rights  inhere  in  personality,  because  it  is 
free,  because  it  has  duties,  because  it  has  an  end  to 
realize.  This  cannot  be  said  of  any  creature  lower 
than  man.  Such  a  creature  is  not  an  end,  but  a 
means.  Its  purpose  of  being  is  not  realized  in  itself. 
Man    is    lord  over  the  lower  creatures ;    bound,   no 


80  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

doubt,  to  exercise  his  lordship  in  a  truly  lordly  way, 
in  a  way  comporting  with  his  rational  nature  and  not 
like  a  brute,  but  still  possessed  of  dominion.  The 
animal  world  exists  for  him,  is  for  his  service,  and 
finds  its  end  in  him,  not  in  itself.  Man,  too,  is  under 
the  dominion  of  a  Superior,  but  his  end  is  to  become 
like  him,  to  realize  in  his  own  person  the  spiritual 
excellence  of  God. 

(2)  If  rights  inhere  in  a  man,  what  rights  has  he  ? 
The  right  to  realize  himself,  to  attain  the  ends  of  his 
being.  This  is,  with  relation  to  himself,  his  duty. 
With  relation  to  others,  it  is  his  right.  He  has  a 
right,  therefore,  to  himself  and  to  the  unrestricted 
exercise  of  his  natural  powers.  He  cannot  rightly 
be  enslaved.  To  enslave  him  is  to  disregard  this 
right  and  to  render  impossible  this  duty.  If  it 
should  be  said  that  another  man  or  a  society  of  men 
has  a  right  to  a  man,  on  what  ground  could  this  right 
be  defended  ?  On  what  basis  would  they  rest  their 
right  ?  They  might,  indeed,  claim  or  possess  the 
power,  but  they  could  not  vindicate  the  right.  To 
deny  the  right  of  a  person  to  himself  and  to  the 
exercise  of  all  his  natural  powers,  is  to  deny  all  right 
and  to  appeal  to  force.  But  this  is  the  right  of  each 
man,  and  so  of  all  equally.  The  only  limitation 
arises  when  the  activities  of  one  interfere  with  the 
rights  of  another.  It  is  in  determining  this  margin 
of  rights  that  the  problem  really  consists. 

(3)  If  a  man  has  a  right  to  himself  and  to  the 
exercise  of  his  powers,  he  has  a  right  to  the  product 
of  his  powers  ;  for  otherwise  he  would  be  unable  to 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LABOR.  8 1 

realize  his  primary  right.  His  life  cannot  be  a  mere 
passive  existence.  To  realize  his  manhood,  he  must 
have  food,  tools,  and,  in  certain  climates,  clothing 
and  shelter.  He  does  not  find  these  prepared  by- 
nature.  He  has  a  right  to  produce  them.  His  right 
is  not  identical  with  the  right  to  a  living.  It  is  the 
right  to  produce  a  living.  It  entitles  him  to  what  he 
produces,  but  no  more.  If  he  take  another  man's 
food,  under  the  pretext  that  "  society  owes  him  a 
living,"  he  makes  three  false  assumptions  :  First,  that 
any  one  owes  him  a  living  ;  second,  that  society  owes 
this  debt,  and  third,  that  this  man,  whose  food  he 
takes,  is  the  representative  of  the  society  that  owes 
him.  The  right  to  produce  a  living  is  not  a  debt 
at  all.  Society  cannot  be  held  to  its  payment. 
Worst  of  all,  another's  right  to  the  product  of  his 
powers  is  invaded,  if  the  food  be  taken.  The  duty 
of  each  man  is  to  respect  the  right  of  every  other 
man.  The  duty  of  society  is  to  protect  each  man  in 
this  right.  The  question  of  a  right  to  a  living  is  one 
dependent  upon  several  circumstances.  If  there  is 
food  available  for  ten,  and  twenty  set  up  this  claim, 
a  difficulty  will  arise.  Supposing  each  of  the  twenty 
to  have  an  equal  claim,  each  can  have  but  half  what 
he  needs.  All  may  starve  and  no  one  can  maintain 
his  right  to  a  living.  For  a  man  to  take  his  living 
by  force  would  be  to  rob  the  rest  and  add  an  injus- 
tice to  a  misfortune.  But  if  ten  have  produced  the 
food  for  ten,  and  ten  others  press  the  claim  of  equal 
division,  what  becomes  of  the  rights  of  the  ten  who 
have  produced  their  living  ?     The  claim  of  the  idle 


82  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

ten  is  without  foundation.  They  have  no  right  to 
the  food  of  the  others.  Even  charity  will  be  difficult 
in  the  case  imagined,  but  sharing  would  be  charity. 

(4)  The  question  of  rights  is  apparently  complicated 
by  the  statement  that  all  wealth,  as  it  exists  in  soci- 
ety, is  a  social  and  not  an  individual  product.  Take 
a  loaf  of  bread,  for  example.  This,  it  is  said,  repre- 
sents a  host  of  producers.  Not  only  the  baker  and 
the  miller  and  the  farmer,  but  the  agricultural  imple- 
ment maker,  the  wood-chopper  who  cut  the  timber 
in  the  reaper,  the  iron-workers  who  fashioned  the 
iron,  the  miners,  the  coal-diggers,  the  teamsters,  the 
wagon-makers,  the  horseshoers,  the  harness-makers, 
and  a  vast  cloud  of  other  contributors  whom  we 
seldom  think  about,  are  all  co-producers  of  that 
identical  loaf  of  bread  ;  that  is,  it  would  not  be  such 
as  it  is  if  these  agencies  had  not  conspired  to  bring- 
together  the  conditions  of  its  production.  They  all 
have  a  share  in  it.  By  implication,  if  any  one  of 
them  were  hungry,  he  might  help  himself.  But  which 
one  might  ?  We  have  here  not  only  the  confusion 
of  rights,  but  the  practical  obliteration  of  them.  Is 
there  no  one  who,  above  all  others,  and  in  opposition 
to  all  others,  has  a  right  to  use  this  bread  ?  The 
workman  on  whose  table  it  lies  paid  the  baker  for  it, 
the  baker  paid  the  miller,  and  the  miller  paid  the 
farmer  for  the  wheat  there  is  in  it.  Presumably 
every  co-producer  has  already  received  his  share  for 
his  efforts  in  producing  it.  If  not,  and  all  want  it, 
it  is  rather  late  in  the  day  for  the  adjudication  of 
claims,  and  the  probability  is  there  will   be  a  free 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LABOR.  83 

fight  over  it.  But  the  question  of  right  is  not  the 
question  of  division.  It  is  prior  to  the  question  of 
division.  It  must  be  settled  as  the  basis  of  any 
settlement  of  the  question  of  division  on  the  princi- 
ple of  right.  To  fight  for  the  bread  is  to  ignore  all 
questions  of  right.  To  ask  for  the  equities  is  to 
assume  that  there  is  a  moral  law  of  division.  When 
the  division  of  claims  has  been  made  in  accordance 
with  its  law,  and  each  claim  has  been  met,  what 
becomes  of  the  social  property  in  the  bread  ?  It 
is  a  mere  mystification.  The  bread  belongs  wholly 
and  absolutely  to  the  man  who  has  bought  it  and 
paid  for  it.  He  has  discharged  all  claims  upon  it. 
Neither  society  nor  any  other  man  than  its  owner 
has  a  right  to  a  crumb  of  it. 

(5)  The  mist  now  descends  upon  the  question  of 
rights  from  still  another  source.  The  loaf  belongs 
to  the  man  who  has  earned  it  by  his  labor,  but  has 
not  society  a  claim  upon  it  through  its  claim  upon 
him  ?  Society  has  made  him  what  he  is.  It  has 
protected  him,  it  has  educated  him,  it  has  furnished 
him  a  chance  to  labor.  Is  there  not  here  a  social 
limitation  of  individual  rights  ?  Yes,  without  ques- 
tion, the  man  is  indebted  for  many  services  rendered. 
For  these  he  ought  to  pay.  The  cost  of  them,  so 
far  as  it  can  be  ascertained,  ought  to  be  made  out, 
and  then  with  all  the  rest,  sharing  like  advantages, 
he  should  pay  his  proportion  of  the  cost.  This  is 
the  justification  of  taxation.  If  he  enjoys  a  state 
of  society  where  public  roads  are  used  and  public 
schools  have  shed  light  along  the  path,  he  certainly 


84         SOCIAL    INFLUENCE    OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

ought  to  pay  for  all  this.  But  when  this  is  clone 
can  he  eat  his  loaf  without  a  mortgage  upon  it  ? 
No,  we  are  told,  he  must  still  share  it  with  the  poor 
and  unfortunate.  But  he  insists  that  he  has  done 
that  in  paying  his  taxes,  and  has  already  remembered 
the  poor.  When  at  last  can  he  hope  to  sit  down  to 
an  undivided  loaf  ?  Who  are  these  poor  that  are 
still  unprovided  for  ?  What  is  their  claim  ?  It  is 
simply  the  cry  of  the  poor  who  are  always  with  us, 
pleading  for  charity,  not  pressing  a  right.  It  cannot 
be  formulated  as  a  right  without  an  abuse  of  lan- 
guage. It  is  an  opportunity  for  works  of  mercy, 
which  every  Christian  man  will  embrace  in  his  own 
way,  but  to  call  it  a  "right,"  to  press  it  as  a  social 
obligation  that  binds  a  man  to  action,  is  to  destroy 
the  very  possibility  of  charity  in  the  name  of  justice. 
(6)  We  conclude,  then,  that  the  laborer  is  at  last 
owner  of  his  bread  and  has  a  right  to  it  which  can- 
not be  rationally  disputed.  It  is  in  a  peculiar  sense 
"  property."  That  it  is  private  is  involved  in  its  very 
nature.  It  is  the  fruit  of  individual  powers,  put  forth 
under  the  protection  of  rights.  It  is  simply  the 
extension  of  personality.  The  right  of  property  is 
not  based  upon  the  possession  of  it,  or  upon  univer- 
sal consent.  The  right  may  exist  where  the  posses- 
sion does  not,  and  where  consent  is  not  universal. 
The  right  precedes  all  property.  It  is  inherent  in 
man  as  a  personal  being.  Deny  his  personality,  link 
him  with  the  lower  animals,  regard  him  as  a  product 
of  nature,  the  highest  note  in  the  music  of  evolution, 
and  there  is  no  right  of  property  ;  but  then  there  is 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LABOR.  85 

no  right  whatever.  There  remains  nothing  but  con- 
flicting forces,  the  triumph  of  might  and  the  slavery 
of  the  laborer.  If  the  laborer  has  any  rights  which 
he  can  defend  by  other  means  than  dynamite,  if  he 
has  any  standing  before  the  tribunal  of  reason,  it  is 
because  he  is  a  person,  because  he  is  that  which 
Christ  taught  that  he  is,  the  image  of  God,  clothed 
with  the  majesty  of  freedom.  Christianity  solves 
this  problem  of  the  laborer's  rights  in  the  light  of 
its  conception  of  man,  the  conception  that  has 
enfranchised  the  slave,  emancipated  woman,  and 
snatched  the  abandoned  child  from  the  eagles  and  the 
wolves,  to  place  it  in  the  safety  of  the  cradle  and  the 
sunlight  of  the  school. 

(7)  The  right  of  private  property  is  challenged  by 
some  who  admit  its  general  principle,  when  that 
property  assumes  the  form  of  land.  Henry  George 
insists  that  the  landlord  is  a  monopolist  and  that  all 
land  is  in  equity  the  property  of  society  ;  or,  as  he 
puts  it,  "common  property."  He  does  not  say,  how- 
ever, to  whom  it  belongs,  nor  is  that  possible  upon 
his  theory.  It  belongs  to  all  who  are,  have  been,  or 
ever  will  be  on  the  earth,  and  equally.  Still,  he  pro- 
poses to  tax  all  the  land  in  the  United  States  to  the 
full  extent  of  the  annual  rental,  and  put  the  money 
into  the  United  States  treasury.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that,  if  it  ever  reached  that  destination,  it 
would  be  distributed,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  the  "  ring" 
would  include  all  the  alleged  rightful  claimants  past, 
present,  and  to  come.  It  would  happen,  however, 
that    thousands   of  honest    and  industrious  laborers, 


86  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

who  have  put  their  lives  into  the  improvement  of 
lands,  to  say  nothing  of  thousands  of  helpless  wid- 
ows and  orphans  whom  the  departed  have  left  behind, 
would  be  rendered  homeless  and  reduced  to  penury, 
while  the  scant  three  per  cent,  income  which  Ameri- 
can acres  are  paying,  when  other  investments  are 
worth  twice  that  percentage,  would  go  into  the  hands 
of  officials  whose  places  might  be  more  coveted  than 
the  mayoralty  of  New  York  City.  But  if  we  can 
readily  dismiss  this  preposterous  proposition  of  one 
who,  like  other  political  agitators,  lives  on  the  sensa- 
tion he  creates  rather  than  on  the  labor  he  glorifies, 
we  may  have  more  respect  for  John  Stuart  Mill, 
when  he  says  :  "  When  the  '  sacredness  '  of  property 
is  talked  of,  it  should  always  be  remembered  that  any 
such  sacredness  does  not  belong  in  the  same  degree 
to  landed  property.  It  is  the  original  inheritance  of 
the  whole  species."  5  The  idea  of  a  right  of  prop- 
erty residing  in  a  "  species "  is  more  astonishing 
than  it  is  intelligible.  As  the  species  is  indefinite, 
no  individual  claim  can  be  determined.  How,  then, 
can  it  be  decided  whether  an  individual  owner  has 
more  or  less  than  his  share  ?  If  it  is  to  be  settled 
upon  the  basis  of  living  claimants,  even  then  it  would 
be  practically  as  indefinite.  We  must  first  ascertain 
the  amount  of  land  and  the  number  of  persons.  A 
plague  in  Asia  or  the  submergence  of  an  island  in 
Polynesia  would  seriously  disturb  boundaries.  If 
the  earth  belongs  to  the  "  species,"  the  rent  of  this 
continent    does    not    belong   to   the    United    States 

8  Mill's  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  book  ii,  chap.  i. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  TAB  OR.  87 

treasury,  and  when  collected  a  portion  should  be 
sent  to  Belgium,  where  the  population  is  exceedingly 
crowded,  and,  indeed,  disbursed  throughout  the  globe, 
in  the  form  of  Christmas  presents,  based  on  the  ter- 
ritorial distribution.  In  that  case,  it  would  pay  to 
keep  away  from  the  land  altogether  and  the  taxes 
would  be  reduced  and  dividends  increased  by  going 
to  sea.  Herbert  Spencer  goes  to  the  root  of  the 
question,  as  a  question  of  theory,  and  it  is  simply 
that,  rather  than  one  for  practice.  He  says : 
"  Equity  does  not  permit  property  in  land.  For  if 
one  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  may  justly  become 
the  possession  of  an  individual  and  may  be  held  by 
him  for  his  sole  use  and  benefit  as  a  thing  to  which 
he  has  an  exclusive  right,  then  other  portions  of  the 
earth's  surface  may  be  so  held ;  and  eventually  the 
whole  of  the  earth's  surface  ;  and  our  planet  may 
thus  lapse  altogether  into  private  hands."6  I  do 
not  pause  to  show  that  no  land  is  held  over  which 
society  does  not  enjoy  eminent  domain  and  the  right 
of  way  for  compensation,  or  that  too  extensive  land- 
holding  is  practically  unprofitable,  or  that  land  is 
regarded  as  common  property  in  certain  parts  of  the 
world  without  perceptible  advantage,  or  that,  as 
Laveleye  has  shown,  land  was  originally  held  as 
tribal  property,  and  private  property  is  the  only 
regime  under  which  imjDrovement  has  taken  place ; 
but  adhere  to  the  purely  theoretical  and  imaginary 
form  in  which  the  argument  is  stated.  Herbert 
Spencer  defends  private  property  in  commodities  and 

6  Spencer's  Social  Statics,  part  ii,  chap.  ix. 


88  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

copyrights.  Not  being  a  landowner,  but  deriving 
his  income  from  royalties  on  his  books,  he  sees  a 
great  injustice  in  private  ownership  of  the  soil,  but 
none  in  taxing  the  people  for  truth,  or  such  approxi- 
mations to  it  as  he  may  personally  evolve.  Let  us 
now,  in  the  same  fanciful  manner,  draw  a  parallel  to 
Spencer's  argument  against  landowning.  "  Equity 
does  not  permit  a  man  to  own  the  dinner  on  his 
table.  For,  if  a  man  may  own  one  dinner,  he  may 
own  another,  and  if  two  dinners,  then  ten,  and  so  on, 
until  he  might  own  all  the  food-supply  in  the  world, 
and  our  planet  would  be  reduced  to  starvation."  If 
this  seems  very  absurd,  Spencer's  fancy  is  not  less 
so.  There  is  as  much  motive  for  owning  all  the  food 
as  for  owning  all  the  land  ;  and  more,  for  less  money 
buys  a  grain  crop  than  buys  a  farm,  and  the  power 
over  others  would  be  much  greater  if  one  could  com- 
mand all  the  food  than  if  he  owned  all  the  land.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  food-supply,  the  coal-supply,  and 
the  oil-supply  in  the  United  States  are  more  nearly 
in  the  control  of  a  few  men  than  the  land.  There 
are  men  in  Chicago  who  know  that  the  grain  market 
can  be  controlled  without  owning  the  land.  But  if 
a  man  cannot  own  food,  he  cannot  own  himself.  The 
argument  against  the  ownership  of  land  lies  with 
equal  weight  against  the  owning  of  one's  dinner  ;  but 
if  one  cannot  own  his  dinner,  he  cannot  own  his 
body,  and  if  not  his  body  then  not  his  brain,  and  if 
not  his  brain,  then  not  the  products  of  it  ;  hence 
Herbert  Spencer  has  no  equitable  property  in  his 
copyright  ! 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   LABOR.  89 

(8)  We  conclude  that  the  laborer  has  the  right  to 
the  fruit  of  his  labor,  and  the  whole  fruit  of  it,  after 
he  has  satisfied  the  like  rights  of  others.  This  is  his 
right,  if  there  be  any  ethical  foundation  of  society  or 
any  moral  nature  in  man.  But  there  is  another 
aspect  of  this  problem  of  the  rights  of  the  laborer. 
All  that  he  is  and  all  the  natural  agents  which 
he  employs  are  bestowments  of  a  higher  Power. 
While  no  man  may  interfere  with  his  use  of  his 
powers  and  the  fruits  of  his  toil  expended  upon  the 
materials  and  forces  of  nature,  there  is  a  claim  that 
underlies  all  —  the  claim  of  the  Creator.  Christ 
has  presented  this  neglected  aspect  of  the  problem 
in  his  parable  of  the  talents.  Behind  this  fortifica- 
tion of  rights  in  which  the  producer  of  wealth  in- 
trenches himself  and  protects  himself  from  all  inva- 
sion of  rights,  is  that  citadel  of  duty  which  gives 
security  to  them  all.  It  is  into  this  that  the  defender 
of  his  rights  must  at  last  retire  when  pressed  by  his 
enemies.  He  says  :  "  I  have  duties  to  perform  to 
my  family,  to  my  friends.  If  you  take  away  my 
rights,  I  cannot  perform  my  duties.  I  am  bound  to 
realize  manhood,  and  my  rights  must  be  accorded 
that  I  may  perform  my  duties."  This  is  the  Christian 
solution  of  the  origin  of  rights.  It  says  to  the 
laborer :  This  is  your  land,  for  you  have  cleared  its 
swamps  and  blasted  out  its  rocks  and  made  it  golden 
with  a  harvest ;  this  is  your  grain,  for  you  have  dropped 
the  dry  seeds  into  the  moist  earth  at  springtime  and 
have  harvested  and  winnowed  and  garnered  it  ;  this 
is  your  gold,  for  you  have  burrowed  into  the   moun- 


90  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

tains  for  it  and  washed  away  the  sand  from  it  until  it 
glitters  in  your  hand ;  but  remember,  there  is  upon 
it  all  a  claim  that  you  must  recognize  —  the  claim  of 
Him  who  fashioned  the  mountains  and  hollowed  out 
the  valleys  and  buried  the  bright  nuggets  deep  in  the 
rocks  for  you  to  gather  ;  the  claim  of  a  Father  who 
has  placed  you  among  brethren  who  are  like  yourself, 
equal  in  moral  dignity  to  yourself,  if  not  in  powers 
or  possessions,  to  whom  also  he  has  given  rights, 
and  whose  burdened  backs  and  wearied  hands  you 
cannot,  as  a  man  and  a  brother,  cause  to  toil 
and  ache  to  heap  up  your  treasures  or  feed  your 
pride.  Christianity,  respecting  and  defending  every 
right  of  man  because  he  is  man,  with  one  hand  holds 
the  shield  of  a  protecting  goddess  over  the  rights  of 
property,  and  with  the  other  uplifts  the  sword  of 
justice  against  the  robber  and  the  oppressor.  The 
right  of  property  is  simply  the  right  of  a  steward 
to  discharge  his  trust  without  interference.  But 
"it  is  required  in  stewards  that  a  man  be  found 
faithful." 

The  increase  of  wealth  is  attended  with  great  perils, 
yet  Christianity  favors  and  aids  that  increase.  All 
the  sages  and  philosophers  of  antiquity  dreaded  the 
day  when  the  simplicity  of  poverty  should  give  place  to 
the  luxury  of  wealth.  They  had  good  reason  for  this 
fear,  for  no  pagan  nation  has  ever  grown  rich  without 
the  deterioration  of  its  people.  A  prophetic  psalm 
of  ancient  Israel  expresses  a  wish  which  no  pagan 
sage  had  dared  to  utter,  but  only  in  view  of  a  condi- 
tion that  renders  riches  safe.     "  God  be  merciful  unto 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LABOR.  91 

us,  and  bless  us,  and  cause  his  face  to  shine  upon  us, 
that  thy  ways  may  be  known  upon  the  earth,  thy 
saving  health  among  all  nations.  .  .  .  Then  shall  the 
earth  yield  her  increase  ;  and  God,  even  our  own 
God,  shall  bless  us." 

Ui 


IV. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    PROBLEMS 
OF   WEALTH. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    PROBLEMS    OF 

WEALTH. 


I.    THE    PROBLEM    OF   DISTRIBUTION. 

1.  The  Problem  an  Old  One. 

2.  Its  Contemporary  Complications. 

3.  The  Discussion  of  the  Problem. 

4.  Christ's  Refusal  to  be  a  Divider. 

5.  Christianity  gives  the  Spirit,  but  not  the  Science  of  a 

Solution. 

6.  The  Method  of  Arbitration. 

II.    SCHEMES   FOR   EQUALIZING   WEALTH. 

1.  The  Postulate  of  Socialism. 

2.  The  History  and  Literature  of  Socialism. 

3.  The  Equality  of  Men  a  False  Assumption. 

4.  The  Injustice  of  Equalizing  Wealth. 

5.  The  Fruits  of  Labor  determined  by  Social  Utility. 

6.  The  Specific  Forms  of  Socialism  : 

(1)  Revolutionary  Socialism; 

(2)  Agrarian  Socialism  ; 

(3)  State  Socialism ; 

(4)  Christian  Socialism. 

7.  Did  Christ  teach  Human  Equality? 

III.   THE  EQUITABLE   DISTRIBUTION    OF  WEALTH. 

1.  Progressive  Acquisition. 

2.  Decentralizing  Agencies. 

3.  The  Case  of  the  Proletarian. 

4.  Industrial  Partnerships. 

5.  Labor  Organizations. 

6.  The  World  as  a  School  of  Morals. 

7.  Christian  Beneficence. 


£  IV. 

CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    PROBLEMS   OF 
WEALTH. 


i.  When  wealth  has  beer  produced,  there  arises 
the  problem  of  its  distribution.  It  is  not  a  new- 
problem,  as  the  history  of  the  conflicts  of  capital  and 
labor  reveals.  Ever  since  the  banquet  board  of  life 
has  been  spread  for  men,  they  have  been  crowding 
one  another  for  the  best  places.  But  the  conditions 
are  ever  changing.  In  earlier  times,  large  classes 
gave  up  all  hope  of  a  place  at  the  table,  and  were 
content  to  eat  a  few  crumbs  in  a  corner.  It  is  not 
so  to-day.  The  results  of  the  republican  movement 
of  thought  are  felt  throughout  the  civilized  world. 
Men  everywhere  feel  that  they  are  as  good  as  others ; 
and,  as  a  Hibernian  once  said,  sometimes  a  great 
deal  better !  Political  equality  has  become  so  gen- 
eral that  social  elevation  is  the  dream  of  the  lowest. 
But  it  is  by  no  means  the  intention  of  any  to  surren- 
der their  places.  The  same  strong  desire  for  per- 
sonal superiority,  as  distinguished  from  personal 
excellence,  that  has  always  been  so  powerful  a  motive 
in  men,  is  still  active,  and  never  more  so  than  in  our 
own  land  and  time.  In  truth,  the  motive  for  eleva- 
tion is  even  more  predominant  than  ever.     The  cause 


96  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

of  this  lies  in  the  almost  universal  presumption  of 
the  least  fortunate  people  that  all  misfortune  can  be 
effaced  by  the  possession  of  wealth.  The  rush  for 
the  banquet  is  never  so  prompt  and  energetic  as 
when  the  crowd  is  hungry,  and  the  politically  enfran- 
chised bring  a  good  appetite  to  the  scene  of  wealth's 
distribution. 

2.  While  the  problem  is  thus  made  a  pressing  one, 
there  are  several  circumstances  that  tend  to  render 
it  complex.  One  is  the  unprecedented  division  of 
labor,  so  minute  that  almost  every  commodity  is  a 
social  product.  When  a  barbarian  carved  a  stone 
into  a  hatchet  with  his  own  hands,  there  could  be  no 
doubt  to  whom  it  belonged  ;  but  when  a  schoolboy 
purchases  a  penknife,  an  army  of  co-producers  rises 
behind  it,  each,  it  may  be,  with  some  unsatisfied 
claim  upon  it.  Another  source  of  difficulty  is  found 
in  the  vast  but  incalculable  progress  in  the  use  of 
mechanical  implements  and  forces,  which  renders  it 
troublesome  to  ascertain  how  large  a  share  of  the 
worldis  general  advancement  may  fall  to  each  mem- 
ber of  society.  For  example  :  There  is  no  patent  on 
the  use  of  steam.  It  has  become  a  human  inheri- 
tance to  which  no  class  has  an  exclusive  right. 
What  proportion  of  this  common  advantage  should 
each  person  enjoy  ?  It  is  said  that,  although  there 
has  been  marvelous  progress  in  the  production  of 
wealth,  there  are  classes,  and  these  the  hardest 
worked  of  all,  who  have  not  received  a  perceptible 
increment  of  benefit  from  this  and  other  heirlooms 
of    humanity.     The    rhetorical  author  of  "  Progress 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  97 

and  Poverty"  does  not  deny  the  absolute  improve- 
ment of  workingmen  in  civilized  countries,  but  he 
formulates  this  alleged  though  not  clearly  proved  dis- 
proportion of  benefit  in  the  telling  but  false  aphorism, 
"The  rich  are  growing  richer,  and  the  poor,  poorer."  x 
It  does  not  mollify  the  aroused  sense  of  indignation 
at  this  apparent  injustice,  to  be  told  that  many  of  the 
greatest  fortunes  have  been  acquired  by  men  who 
began  life  as  wage-earners,  and  that  some  of  the 
most  gigantic  estates  in  the  world  have  been  amassed 
in  one  or  two  generations.  This  is,  in  fact,  the 
greatest  provocation  to  the  envious,  that  a  man  in 
a  nominally  free  country  should  rise  so  rapidly  above 
his  fellows  as  in  a  few  short  years  to  "  bestride 
the  narrow  world  like  a  colossus." 

3.  The  general  diffusion  of  intelligence  and  the 
accessibility  of  information  on  every  subject  have 
conspired  to  convert  the  more  advanced  countries 
into  a  vast  indignation  meeting,  where  the  most  vig- 
orous debate  on  the  constitution  of  society  and  the 
schemes  for  its  reconstruction  that  has  ever  re- 
sounded in  the  "parliament  of  man"  is  at  present 
rolling  its  tide  of  spasmodic  eloquence  and  untrained 
logic  upon  the  understanding  and  the  conscience  of 
this  generation.  The  political  economist  has  heard 
the  definitions  and  pretended  axioms  of  his  "dismal 
science "    mutilated    and    denounced,   ridiculed   and 

1  For  a  statistical  refutation  of  Henry  George's  statement,  "  The  rich  are 
growing  richer,  and  the  poor,  poorer,"  see  Rae's  Contemporary  Socialism, 
chap,  ix ;  and  Mallock's  Property  and  Progress,  essay  on  The  Statistics  of 
Agitation. 


98  SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

refuted,  and  dismissed  as  impotent  to  govern  thought 
or  dictate  action.  The  socialistic  theorist  has  pro- 
posed the  most  radical  and  revolutionary  remedies, 
and  his  more  excited  cohorts  of  agitators  have  dis- 
turbed the  discussion  with  bomb  and  pistol,  till  it  has 
been  found  necessary  to  eject  them  from  the  world 
as  conspiring  assassins.  The  Christian  minister  has 
preached  the  precepts  of  peace  with  various  degrees 
of  comprehension  of  the  debate,  and  with  alternating 
sympathies  with  his  friends  among  the  rich  and 
among  the  poor,  generally  with  the  result  of  produc- 
ing the  impression  that  his  sentiments  were  good  and 
his  intentions  commendable,  but  sometimes  with  a 
sneer  that  his  salary  was  paid  by  the  men  who  could 
spare^the  money,  and  with  the  intimation  that  it  is 
not  "peace"  but  "justice"  that  men  want. 

4.  If  we  seriously  ask,  Has  Christianity  any  rela- 
tion to  the  problem  of  wealth's  distribution  ?  we 
shall  at  once  recall  the  words  of  Christ,  when  the 
young  man  came  to  him,  saying,  "  Master,  speak  to 
my  brother,  that  he  divide  the  inheritance  with  me." 
And  Jesus  answered:  "Man,  who  made  me  a  judge 
or  a  divider  over  you  ?  "  Then  follows  that  pregnant 
passage  which  no  theory  of  the  distribution  of  wealth 
can  afford  to  ignore.  Turning  to  the  multitude,  he 
said  :  "  Take  heed,  and  beware  of  covetousness  ;  for 
a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  which  he  possesseth.  And  he  spake  a  para- 
ble unto  them,  saying,  The  ground  of  a  certain  rich 
man  brought  forth  plentifully  ;  and  he  thought  within 
himself,  saying,  What  shall  I  do,  because  I  have  no 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WE  A  IT H.  99 

room  where  to  bestow  my  fruits  ?  And  he  said,  This 
will  I  do :  I  will  pull  down  my  barns,  and  build 
greater  ;  and  there  will  I  bestow  all  my  fruits  and 
my  goods.  And  I  will  say  to  my  soul,  Soul,  thou 
hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years  ;  take  thine 
ease,  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry.  But  God  said  unto 
him,  Thou  fool  !  this  night  thy  soul  shall  be  required 
of  thee ;  then  whose  shall  those  things  be  which 
thou  has  provided  ?  So  is  he  that  layeth  up  treasure 
for  himself,  and  is  not  rich  toward  God."  What 
ground  have  we  for  thinking  that  if  Christ  were  in 
the  flesh  to-day  he  would  give  another  answer  ? 
What  authority  has  any  disciple  of  his,  in  his  name, 
to  give  another  ?  The  plain  duty  of  Christians  is  to 
understand  and  apply  this  teaching.  It  involves : 
(1)  a  rebuke  to  covetousness ;  (2)  the  decla'ration 
that  true  wealth  does  not  consist  in  earthly  posses- 
sions ;  (3)  the  necessity  of  riches  toward  God,  or 
spiritual  attainment. 

5.  Has  Christianity,  then,  no  relation  to  this  sub- 
ject ?  May  not  Christian  men  attempt  the  problem 
of  distribution  ?  Certainly  we  are  not  assuming  to 
be  dividers  over  men  when  we  seek  to  ascertain  the 
principles  of  right  division.  We  are  producers  of 
wealth,  we  have  a  share  in  it,  and  we  must  know  how 
to  divide  it  among  ourselves.  If  we  may  draw  any 
practical  lesson  from  Christ's  unwillingness  to  act  as 
judge,  it  is  that  he  had  no  principle  to  apply  that 
men  might  not  by  themselves  discover.  He  has  else- 
where recommended  that  differences  be  settled  by 
agreement  and,  if  that  is  impossible,  by  calling  in  an 


IOO       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

arbitrator.  He  chose  not  to  arbitrate  in  this  case  for 
reasons  that  are  not,  indeed,  expressed,  but  are 
certainly  implied.  He  referred  at  once  to  "  covetous- 
ness."  The  brother  who  had  the  inheritance  doubt- 
less had  it  in  accordance  with  the  law.  The  claimer 
may  have  been  disinherited  for  his  vices,  may  have 
possessed  and  wasted  his  share  of  the  fortune,  may 
have  been  utterly  incapable,  intellectually  and  mor- 
ally, of  its  proper  management.  Christ  states  the 
spirit  with  which  wealth  ought  to  be  regarded.  That 
is  really  what  men  need.  Victor  Hugo  once  said  : 
"Social  philosophy  is,  in  essence,  science  and  peace." 
Christianity  commands  that  we  approach  this  ques- 
tion in  "peace,"  but  our  own  faculties  may  discover 
the  "science." 

6.  Arbitration  is  rightly  represented  as  the  Chris- 
tian method  of  settling  disputes  over  wealth.  It 
possesses  the  advantage  of  pursuing  the  way  of 
peace.  But  it  lacks  science.  With  the  best  of  in- 
tentions, men  may  miss  the  mark  of  justice  if  they 
do  not  know  on  what  principles  to  proceed.  If  there 
were  an  omnipresent  paternal  umpire,  endowed  with 
perfect  wisdom  and  impartiality,  to  administer  justice 
in  every  case,  arbitration  would  realize  perfect  equity. 
But  when  we  consider  how  complicated  are  the  phe- 
nomena, how  unwilling  men  are  to  expose  their 
affairs  to  other  persons,  and  how  reluctant  the  dis- 
appointed one  is  likely  to  be  in  accepting  a  decision, 
and  add  to  all  this  the  innumerable  cases  in  which 
the  tedious  process  has  to  be  applied,  it  is  evident 
that  it  is  not  as  easy  as  it  is  sometimes  represented 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  IOI 

to  be.  Available  in  the  larger  interests  of  inter- 
national disputes,  because  of  the  comparative  infre- 
quency  of  the  occasions  when  it  must  be  invoked,  it 
is  less  powerful  in  the  presence  of  the  personal  dis- 
tribution of  property.  And  yet,  it  is  not  only  the 
best  means  we  have,  but  has  proved  exceedingly  use- 
ful in  France  and  England,  where  it  has  been  for 
years  the  favorite  method  of  deciding  differences 
between  workmen  and  their  employers.  The  history 
of  arbitration  in  trade  often  reads  like  a  romance, 
and  is  a  perfect  vindication  of  the  wisdom  of  pacific 
adjustments.  On  the  dark  background  of  waste 
and  violence  occasioned  by  strikes,  it  shines  out  like 
a  fiery  cross  in  the  heavens,  the  symbol  of  blended 
sacrifice  and  justice.  But  even  for  peaceful  arbitra- 
tion, we  need  general  principles.  Once  discovered, 
they  may  be  recognized  by  all  as  furnishing  the  basis 
of  voluntary  agreement ;  or,  if  not  left  to  personal 
choice,  they  may  be  incorporated  into  the  law  of  the 
land,  which  is  the  generalized  agreement  of  a  people 
as  to  what  is  right  and  just. 


II. 

I.  Aristotle,  who  in  many  respects  has  not  been 
surpassed  as  a  political  writer,  says  :  "  Everywhere 
inequality  is  a  cause  of  revolution."  He  then  adds: 
"  Men  agree  about  justice  in  the  abstract,  but  they 
differ  about  proportion ;  some  think  that  if  they  are 
equal  in  any  respect  they  are  equal  absolutely ; 
others  that  if  they  are  unequal  in  any  respect,  they 


102       SOCIAL    INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

are  unequal  in  all."  2  If  he  had  written  to-day,  after 
reading  the  current  doctrines  of  socialism,  the  Stagi- 
rite  could  not  have  expressed  himself  more  wisely. 
Men  believe  themselves  equal  in  all  but  wealth,  but 
feel  keenly  their  inequality  in  the  possession  of  it. 
They  thence  conclude  that  they  ought  to  be  equal 
in  wealth  also,  and  every  socialistic  theory  proceeds 
upon  this  assumption.  In  the  undiscriminating 
mind,  political  equality  involves  social  equality. 
Men  who  are  not  equal  in  fact  imagine  that  they 
are  by  right.  Socialism,  however  it  is  judged  in 
the  light  of  its  proposals,  must  at  least  be  credited 
with  an  ethical  impulse.  It  is  a  dream  of  impossible 
remedies  for  imaginary  wrongs.  It  assumes  that 
all  wealth  is  produced  by  the  labor  of  society, 
that  it  is,  therefore,  the  property  of  society,  and 
that  justice  can  be  realized  only  by  dividing  equally 
that  which  belongs  to  all.  It  does  not  pause  to 
reflect  that  the  units  in  society  have  not  equally 
produced  wealth,  and  that  the  claim  of  each  is  pro- 
portional to  his  productive  contribution.  It  perceives 
in  the  actual  condition  of  men  a  separation  of  wealth 
from  its  alleged  producers,  a  partition  of  products 
by  which  capital,  the  creation  of  labor,  is  placed  on 
one  side  of  a  line  and  labor,  empty-handed,  on  the 
other ;  while  existing  law  creates  an  impassable 
barrier  between  them,  excluding  the  laborer  from 
the  fruits  of  his  labors  and  obliterating  every  right 
by  the  legalized  institution  of  wrong.  It  proposes 
by  various  means  to  break  through  this  barrier  and 
to  divide  this  wealth  among  all  men. 

2  Aristotle's  Politics,  book  v,  i. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH  1 03 

2.  This  is  socialism  in  its  generic  outline.  It  has, 
however,  assumed  chameleon  forms  and  wears  as 
many  masks  as  Proteus  himself.  Its  history  has 
been  so  often  repeated  in  the  numerous  popular 
books  called  out  by  the  contemporary  demand,  like 
those  of  Woolsey,  Rae,  Laveleye,  and  Ely,  to  men- 
tion only  a  few,  that  any  outline  even  of  its  historic 
development  through  the  writings  of  its  forerunners, 
the  Communists,  Babceuf,  Cabet,  Saint-Simon, 
Fourier,  Louis  Blanc,  Proudhon,  and  Owen,  and  its 
own  doctrinaires,  Rodbertus,  Karl  Marx,  Lasalle, 
and  their  followers,  would  be  a  work  of  supereroga- 
tion. All  these  doctrines  have  been  lately  stated, 
expounded,  and  criticized  by  numerous  able  writers, 
among  them  a  number  of  distinguished  clergymen, 
such  as  Doctors  Brown,  Behrends,  Lorimer,  Gladden, 
Smyth,  Newton,  and  others,  who  have  discussed  the 
bearings  of  these  theories  both  upon  the  social  order 
and  the  ethical  life.  A  brief  summary  and  examina- 
tion of  socialistic  doctrines,  therefore,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  so  much  available  literature,  is  all  that  is  to 
be  attempted  before  we  proceed  to  the  wider  rela- 
tions which  our  plan  contemplates. 

3.  The  primary  assumption  of  socialism,  often 
latent  rather  than  expressed,  is  that  men  are  equal. 
It  is  a  false  assumption.  They  are  not  equal  in 
powers,  either  physical  or  mental,  in  skill,  or  in 
industry.  They  are,  therefore,  unequal  in  produc- 
tion. Some  produce  only  a  bare  subsistence,  and 
a  few  not  even  this.  Others  create  a  considerable 
surplus.      Improgressive   labor   consumes   the   whole 


104      SOCIAL    INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

of  its  product,  while  progressive  labor  accumulates 
an  excess.3  The  producers  of  wealth  are  also  un- 
equal in  their  needs.  Science  certainly  contributes 
to  the  creation  of  wealth,  but  the  man  of  science 
cannot  live  as  the  day-laborer  lives.  He  must  be 
sustained  during  a  long  period  of  preparation,  must 
be  supplied  with  books  and  appliances,  and  must 
enjoy  opportunities  of  travel.  The  chemist  and  the 
coal-heaver  are  both  laborers,  but  under  unequal 
conditions  of  necessary  expense  and  surroundings. 
Men  are  unequal  also  in  their  achievements,  even 
when  they  have  expended  the  same  amount  of 
energy.  More  depends  upon  the  judicious  direction 
of  power  than  upon  its  quantity.  It  is  impossible 
to  measure  value  by  days  of  labor.  One  man  will 
do  intone  day  what  another  will  not  do  so  well  in 
two  or,  possibly,  cannot  do  at  all.  Such  a  standard 
is  as  absurd  as  an  elastic  yardstick.  No  a  priori 
mathematical  conception  of  equality  can  solve  the 
problem  of  distribution.  The  units  are  unequal  and 
the  laws  of  the  equation  are,  therefore,  not  applica- 
ble. The  prime  error  of  socialism  consists  in  im- 
porting this  mathematical  idea  of  an  equation  into 
a  province  of  variable  units. 

4.  If  each  laborer  has  a  right  to  the  whole  fruits 
of  his  labor,  which  we  have  demonstrated  in  discuss- 
ing the  problem  of  the  laborer's  rights,  equal  par- 
ticipation in  wealth  involves  the  moral    paradox    of 

s  It  may  be  well  for  the  reader  to  recur  to  the  distinction  between  impro- 
gressive  and  progressive  labor,  as  given  in  Lecture  III,  p.  69,  if  this  distinc- 
tion is  not  clearly  understood. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  1 05 

taking  from  one  who  has  a  greater  right  and  bestow- 
ing upon  one  who  has  a  less  right.  Equality  in 
distribution  is,  therefore,  a  repudiation  of  the  ethical  ) 
idea.  It  cannot  be  justified  on  a  basis  of  right. 
Equality  is  not  equity,  if  the  units  who  are  to  partici- 
pate are  unequal.  "  From  each  according  to  his 
powers,  to  each  according  to  his  needs,"  is  Louis 
Blanc's  monstrous  axiom  of  distribution.  It  is  but  a 
euphemism  for  the  spoliation  of  the  able  and  indus- 
trious for  the  benefit  of  the  weak  and  idle.  When 
rendered  compulsory,  as  socialism  proposes,  it  is  a 
new  form  of  slavery.  That  it  is  an  inversion  of  the 
old  slavery  which  subjected  the  weaker  to  the 
stronger,  does  not  render  it  more  acceptable.  It 
proposes  to  enslave  the  few  who  are  strong  by  the 
combined  action  of  the  weak.  The  pigmies  may 
shackle  the  giant,  but  first  they  must  put  out  his 
eyes.  Like  another  Samson,  he  would  at  last  end  his 
bondage  in  wreck  and  ruin.  The  individual  cannot 
be  thus  deprived  of  freedom,  but  if  he  were,  the  ser- 
vile spirit  would  inevitably  survive  when  hope  was 
dead,  and  weakness  and  idleness  would  be  preferred 
to  strength  and  industry.  The  grand  motive  in  the 
creation  of  wealth  is  the  expectation  of  its  enjoy- 
ment. The  adoption  of  Louis  Blanc's  aphorism,  or 
any  compulsory  equivalent,  would  paralyze  labor  and 
introduce  an  epoch  of  industrial  stagnation  and 
pauperism. 

5.  The  value  of  a  day's  labor  depends  upon  its 
relation  to  social  need.  Social  utility  is  the  quality 
in  labor  that   responds   to  that  need  and  affords  it 


106      SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

satisfaction.  It  may  require  as  much  force  to  pro- 
duce a  thousand  coats  that  will  not  fit  as  to  produce 
the  same  number  of  well-fitting  garments,  or  to  pro- 
duce them  out  of  season  as  in  the  season  when  they 
are  needed.  But  there  is  obviously  a  great  difference 
with  reference  to  social  need.  The  well-cut  gar- 
ments will  all  be  sold  at  a  good  price,  while  the 
others  must  be  sold  for  less,  or  remain  unsold.  A 
man  with  a  pile  of  clothes  too  small  for  him  is  hardly 
better  off  than  a  man  without  any.  The  socialists 
overlook  this  element  of  quality  in  labor.  Karl 
Marx  argues  that  all  capital  is  produced  by  labor  and 
then  that  the  laborers  are  all  and  equally  entitled  to 
share  in  its  possession.  But  suppose  the  tailors  take 
for  their  share  the  coats  they  have  produced.  Some, 
though  they  have  worked  as  hard  as  any,  will  be 
rewarded  with  the  ill-fitting  garments  which  are  of 
no  use  to  them,  and  they  are  as  badly  off  as  if  they 
had  received  less  wages  in  money  than  their  more 
skilful  fellows.  It  is  evidently  unjust  to  take  away 
from  the  expert  in  order  to  reward  the  bunglers.  It 
is  equally  so  to  rob  the  successful  for  the  benefit  of 
the  unsuccessful.  The  whole  problem  of  just  distri- 
bution turns  upon  the  pivot  of  social  utility  in 
response  to  social  need.  "  Why  should  the  stone- 
breaker  on  a  railroad  receive  less  money  for  his  time 
than  the  engineer  of  a  train,  and  the  engineer  less 
than  the  president  of  the  company  ?  It  is  not 
because  it  costs  more  effort  to  preside  over  the 
affairs  of  the  company  ;  it  is  not  because  it  costs 
more  effort  to  run  the  train.     So  far  as  the  putting 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  107 

forth  of  measurable  energy  goes,  the  order  of 
rewards  ought  to  be  reversed,  for  the  stone-breaker 
puts  forth  more  foot-pounds  of  force  than  the  other 
two.  It  is  not  a  complete  answer  to  say  that  the 
cost  of  preparation  is  the  measure  of  reward  and 
that  the  engineer  must  be  paid  for  the  time  used  in 
learning  to  manage  the  engine,  and  the  president  for 
the  time  spent  in  learning  to  preside  over  a  rail- 
road's affairs.  The  true  answer  is  this  :  the  service 
of  each  man  is  paid  according  to  its  worth  to  the 
company.  If  the  stone-breaker  will  not  work,  others 
will  take  his  place  for  what  he  receives.  If  the 
engineer  will  not  work,  others  will  take  his  place  for 
what  he  receives.  Wages  must  always  rise  to  this 
market-price.  But  the  engineer  will  not  work  for 
what  the  stone-breaker  receives.  Why  not  ?  Because 
he  can  get  more  for  his  service.  Why  can  he  get 
more  ?  Because  others  are  willing  to  pay  more. 
Why  are  they  willing  to  pay  more  ?  Because  his 
service  has  a  higher  quality  than  that  of  the  other 
man.  In  what  does  this  quality  consist?  In  ele- 
ments of  knowledge,  skill,  and  judgment,  in  power  to 
do  safely  and  certainly  what  the  other  cannot  do 
safely  and  certainly.  Put  the  stone-breaker  in  charge 
of  the  engine  and  there  would  be  a  destructive  acci- 
dent. Put  the  engineer  in  charge  of  the  president's 
business  and  there  would  be  unskilful  management 
of  the  company's  affairs,  involving  loss  and  possible 
bankruptcy.  It  may  be  settled  as  certain  that  the 
company  would  not  pay  the  engineer  any  more  than 
the  stone-breaker,  if  it  could  hire  him  for  the  same. 


IOS       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Service  has  social  utility  in  proportion  as  it  rises  in 
the  scale  of  skill  and  efficiency.  The  stone-breaker 
is  little  more  than  a  machine,  so  far  as  his  occupation 
goes.  A  machine  has  been  invented  to  take  his 
place.  As  power  advances  from  the  merely  physical 
to  the  intellectual  and  moral  orders,  it  becomes  more 
valuable."4 

6.  The  specific  forms  of  socialism  all  share,  to 
some  extent,  in  the  generic  fallacy  of  the  doctrine. 
They  all  propose  by  artificial  means  to  unite  suddenly 
capital  and  labor  in  the  same  hands. 

(i)  Revolutionary  socialism,  as  represented  by  the 
International  Workmen's  Association,  aims  to  do 
this  by  universal  confiscation  and  redistribution  of 
wealth.  The  political  socialists  of  this  school  would 
accomplish  their  end  by  the  votes  of  the  people,  but 
this  method  is  usually  seen  to  be  impracticable, 
since  it  implies  as  its  precondition  a  mental  revolu- 
tion that  argument  cannot  produce.  The  anarchic 
branch  of  this  school  proposes  the  overthrow  of  the 
present  order  by  physical  force  and  intimidation.  Its 
only  argument  is  dynamite.  This  is  a  phase  of  the 
question  with  which  policemen  and  magistrates  alone 
can  deal. 

(2)  Agrarian  socialism  sees  a  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem in  the  confiscation  and  nationalization  of  land, 
not  by  purchase,  but  by  legal  compulsion  through 
insufferable  taxation.  This  is  the  prescription  of 
Henry  George  for  the  ills  of  society.     It  is  needless 

4  Quoted  from  my  brochure  on  The  Principles  and  Fallacies  of  Socialism, 
No.  533  of  Lovell's  Library. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  109 

to  dwell  upon  the  injustice  of  this  crude  remedy; 
but,  if  applied,  would  it  better  any  one's  condition  ? 
If  the  form  of  change  were  simply  that  present  hold- 
ers of  land  should  pay  the  whole  rent  for  taxes,  they 
would,  in  subletting,  double  the  rent,  which  would 
increase  the  price  of  bread,  since  rent  enters  into 
the  price  of  the  products  of  land,  so  that  non-land- 
holders would  have  both  increased  rent  and  increased 
cost  of  food,  while  the  money  thus  raised  would  go 
in  part  to  public  improvements  and  in  part  to  govern- 
ment officials.  If  the  change  involved  the  actual 
expulsion  of  landholders  from  their  estates,  it  would 
provoke  a  war  for  the  hearthstone  that  could  not  be 
suppressed.  This  agrarian  socialism  of  George  has 
all  the  ethical  faults  of  revolutionary  socialism  with 
the  additional  trait  of  logical  absurdity.  As  another 
has  said  :  "  He  would  not  tax  a  palace,  but  the  plot 
under  it.  He  would  not  tax  a  line  of  steamships, 
but  their  wharf.  He  would  not  tax  a  lump  of  gold, 
but  the  hole  in  the  ground  out  of  which  it  was 
dug."  5 

(3)  State  socialism  is  a  more  subtle  but  equally 
inadequate  solution.  It  proposes  to  solve  the  prob- 
lem of  distribution  by  adding  two  new  functions  to 
the  State  :  the  reparative,  undertaking  to  repair  the 
evils  of  too  great  private  possessions,  by  fixing  a  max- 
imum beyond  which  one  may  not  own  property  and  by 
wholly  or  partly  abolishing  the  right  of  inheritance  ; 
and  the  assistive,  awarding  grants  to  workmen  for 
employment,    insurance,    and    industrial    enterprise. 

fl  Man's  Birthright,  by  E.  H.  G.  Clark,  introduction. 


IIO       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

This  system  has  numerous  adherents  in  Germany, 
among  them  the  great  chancellor,  Prince  Bismarck, 
and  many  university  professors  known  as  "  Socialists 
of  the  Chair."6  Some  American  students  of  polit- 
ical and  social  science  in  Germany  have  imported 
some  of  these  neo-economic  notions  into  our  own 
country,  and  have  given  them  a  certain  popularity 
through  newspapers,  magazines,  and  reviews.  The 
so-called  "historic"  method,  which  characterizes 
the  new  school,  is  excellent  in  teaching  us  what  to 
avoid,  but  easily  imparts  to  the  mind  a  retrogressive 
tendency.  The  worst  vice  of  these  economic  critics, 
however,  is  an  erudite  vagueness  which,  in  attempt: 
ing  to  attain  to  the  unknown,  renders  very  nebulous 
the  whole  province  of  the  known.  They  write 
rhetorically  about  the  ethical  element  in  economic 
theory,  without  pointing  out  with  clearness  the 
basis  of  right,  or  showing  precisely  how  rights  may 
be  realized.  Social  theories  that  have  no  better 
title  to  acceptance  than  flings  at  the  immorality  of 
the  classic  economists  present  a  very  poor  prima 
facie  case.  Mackintosh  says  :  "  I  have  known  Adam 
Smith  slightly,  Ricardo  well,  Malthus  intimately. 
Is  it  not  something  to  say  for  a  science,  that  its 
three  great  masters  were  about  the  three  best  men 
I    ever   knew  ?  " '     It    is    sometimes    forgotten    that 

6  Notably  Professor  Adolph  Wagner,  of  the  University  of  Berlin,  who  has 
formulated  a  "  law  of  increasing  extension  of  the  functions  of  public  power  " 
(Grundlegung,  p.  308),  and  would  both  limit  inheritance  and  enforce  state 
insurance  for  workingmen. 

'  Quoted  by  Professor  Edwin  R.  A.  Seligman,  in  Science  Economic  Dis- 
cussion, p.  14. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  \\\ 

the  founder  of  that  much-reproached  science  which 
assumes  that  self-interest  is  the  principal  factor  in 
the  world  of  wealth,  was  also  the  author  of  an  eth- 
ical system  founded  wholly  upon  sympathy,  and 
bearing  for  its  motto,  "Put  yourself  in  his  place." 
The  neoiogists  condemn  the  wage-system,  or  system 
of  free  personal  contract  between  employer  and 
employed,  as  utterly  unworthy  of  our  civilization. 
But  they  offer  nothing  better.  There  are  vague 
allusions  to  the  "extension  of  state  action,"  but 
no  precise  methods  are  pointed  out  by  which  the 
State  may  control  the  distribution  of  wealth,  with- 
out the  invasion  of  personal  rights  which  we  Amer- 
icans are  accustomed  to  hold  dear.  It  may  be 
modestly  questioned  if  these  writers  have  not  im- 
ported a  temporary  phase  of  German  speculation, 
conceived  largely  under  the  influence  of  a  govern- 
ment that  desires  to  ingratiate  itself  into  the  affec- 
tions of  the  people  by  the  performance  of  paternal 
functions,  in  order  to  render  permanent  an  empire 
but    newly    created.8      This    new    doctrine    of    the 

8  In  a  speech  delivered  on  the  third  of  January,  1882,  Bismarck  said :  "  I 
have  already  explained  the  system  which  I  am  come  to  uphold,  according 
to  the  instructions  of  His  Majesty  the  Emperor.  We  wish  to  establish  a 
state  of  things  in  which  no  one  can  say  '  I  exist  only  to  bear  social  burdens, 
and  nobody  takes  thought  of  my  fate.'  Our  dynasty  has  for  a  long  time  been 
endeavoring  to  reach  this  object.  Frederick  the  Great  already  describes  this 
mission  in  saying,  '  I  am  king  of  the  beggars,'  and  he  realized  it  in  adminis- 
tering strict  justice.  Frederick  William  III  gave  freedom  to  the  peasants. 
Our  present  sovereign  is  animated  by  the  noble  ambition  to  put  a  hand,  in 
his  old  age,  to  the  work  of  assuring  to  the  least  favored  and  weakest  of  our 
fellow-citizens,  if  not  the  same  rights  that  were  seventy  years  ago  granted  to 
the  peasantry,  at  least  a  decided  amelioration  in  their  condition,  in  order 
that  they  can  count  upon  the  help  of  the  State."  "  The  whole  theory  of 
state  socialism,  and  of  a  socialist  monarch,  is  summed  up  in  this  passage," 
says  Laveleye,  from  whom  I  quote  it.    The  Socialism  of  To-day,  chap.  vi. 


112       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

growing  dominance  of  the  State,  and  diminution  of 
the  individual,  will  be  found  as  repugnant  to  Amer- 
ican independence  as  the  lofty  German  theories  of 
transcendentalism,  not  less  ably  or  enthusiastically 
urged  upon  the  American  mind  a  generation  ago, 
proved  to  our  Yankee  common-sense.  For  scholarly 
young  gentlemen,  whose  reputations  are  yet  in  the 
nascent  condition,  and  whose  chosen  department  of 
study  does  not  afford  the  brilliant  discoveries  of 
physical  science,  the  introduction  of  novelties  seems 
a  natural  policy,  and  "  Omne  ignotum  pro  magnifico," 
an  excellent  motto  ;  but  it  will  require  diligence,  if 
in  their  remaining  years,  they  convince  the  Amer- 
ican people  that  it  is  either  sensible  or  just  to  say 
that  a  man  may  possess  ninety-nine  thousand,  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  dollars  and  ninety-nine 
cents,  but  not  one  hundred  thousand  dollars ;  that 
it  is  a  higher  form  of  justice  to  give  the  whole  or 
a  part  of  a  child's  patrimony  to  the  public  than  to 
the  child  for  love  of  whom  its  father  laboriously 
earned  and  prudently  saved  it ;  that  it  is  a  national 
good  to  employ  workmen  with  money  from  the 
public  treasury  in  order  to  give  them  employment, 
under  the  management  of  public  officials  whose 
morals  might  not  be  better  than  those  of  some 
customs  officers,  or  to  insure  men's  lives,  or  to  start 
workmen  in  cooperative  industry.  In  France,  in 
1848,  Louis  Blanc's  idea  of  state  subsidies  for  co- 
operation among  workmen  were  so  far  carried  into 
effect  that  "  thirty  associations,  twenty-seven  of 
which    were    composed   of   workmen,   .   .    .    received 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  113 

eight  hundred  and  ninety  thousand,  five  hundred 
francs.  Within  six  months  three  of  the  Parisian 
societies  failed  ;  and  of  the  four  hundred  and  thirty- 
four  associates,  seventy-four  resigned,  fifteen  were 
excluded,  and  there  were  eleven  changes  of  man- 
agers. In  July,  185 1,  eighteen  associations  had 
ceased  to  exist.  One  year  later  twelve  others  had 
vanished.  In  1865,  four  were  still  extant,  and  had 
been  more  or  less  successful.  In  1875,  there  was 
but  a  single  one  left."  9  Such  are  the  historic  les- 
sons of  state  intervention  for  the  just  distribution 
of  wealth.  It  is  more  likely  to  facilitate  distribution 
than  to  secure  justice. 

4.  It  is  claimed  by  the  Christian  socialists  that 
what  the  law  cannot  do  in  that  it  is  weak,  the  spirit 
of  Christianity  can  do  in  that  it  is  strong.  They 
would  equalize  wealth  by  religious  beneficence, 
voluntarily  raising  and  depositing  in  the  hands  of 
workingmen  large  sums  of  money  for  cooperative 
industry.  Forty  years  ago  the  communist  Villegar- 
delle  compiled  a  volume  of  extracts  from  the  Christian 
Fathers,  to  show  that  social  property  is  the  Chris- 
tian ideal.  Bishop  Ketteler,  of  Mayence,  was  a 
friend  of  Lasalle  and  wrote  a  book  in  1864  on  "The 
Labor  Question  and  Christianity,"  depicting  modern 
society  as  the  revolutionary  socialists  do,  acknowledg- 
ing all  the  evils  of  which  they  complain.  Upon  this 
basis  he  offered  an  eloquent  plea  for  voluntary  con- 
tributions from  all  good  Catholics  for  socialistic 
experiments.     A  host  of  others  have  followed  in  his 

9  Laveleye,  op.  cit.  p.  73,  note. 


114       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

train,  until  there  is  now  in  Germany  a  strong  contin- 
gent of  Catholic  socialists,  strangely  enough  united 
politically  with  the  atheistic  socialists  to  forward  the 
schemes  of  industrial  revolution.  Quickened  to 
action  by  the  apparent  success  of  the  Catholics  in 
leading  the  minds  of  workingmen,  and  fearful  of 
losing  all  hold  on  that  class  through  lack  of  sympathy 
with  its  misfortunes,  the  evangelical  Christians  of 
Germany,  headed  by  Dr.  Stocker,  the  eloquent  court 
preacher  at  Berlin,  have  also  organized  a  socialistic 
movement.10  Herr  Todt  places  the  following  epi- 
graph at  the  head  of  his  book  on  "  Radical  German 
Socialism  and  Christianity  "  :  "  Whoever  would  under- 
stand the  social  question  and  contribute  to  its  solution 
must  have  on  his  right  hand  the  works  on  political 
economy  and  on  his  left  the  literature  of  scientific 
socialism,  and  must  keep  the  New  Testament  open 
before  him."  "Political  economy  explains  the  social 
anatomy,  scientific  socialism  describes  the  disease, 
and  the  gospel  indicates  the  cure."  But  the  masses 
who  are  inclined  to  socialistic  ideas  quite  generally 
repudiate  the  "socialists  in  surplice"  and  prefer 
the  "  socialists  in  blouse."  The  movement  has  made 
more  converts  to  socialism  among  Christians  than  it 
has  converts  to  Christianity  among  socialists.  Said 
Herr  Most  at  a  joint  meeting  at  which  Dr.  Stocker 
was  present :  "  The  social  democracy  will  not  re- 
cede ;  it    will  pursue  its    course  and  accomplish    its 

10  The  views  of  Dr.  Stocker  are  set  forth  in  his  address  on  "  Die  Bibel  und 
die  Sociale  Frage,"  delivered  before  the  Evangelical  Labor  Union  at  Niirn- 
berg,  which  has  passed  through  many  editions. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  115 

designs,  even  though  all  priestdom  should  rise 
against  it,  like  a  cloud  of  locusts  thick  enough  to 
darken  the  sun.  The  social  democracy  knows  that 
the  days  of  Christianity  are  numbered,  and  that  the 
time  is  not  far  distant  when  we  shall  say  to  the 
priests,  Settle  your  account  with  heaven,  for  your 
hour  has  come."  u  It  is  clear  that  oil  and  water 
are  not  more  repugnant  to  coalescence  than  are 
Christianity  and  socialism,  considered  as  types  of 
thought  and  feeling.  Maurice  and  Kingsley  are  well 
known  as  advocates  of  what  has  been  called  Christian 
socialism  in  England,  but  their  doctrines  are  wholly 
different  from  those  of  the  German  socialists.12 
"Competition,"  said  Maurice,  "is  put  forth  as  a  law 
of  the  universe.  That  is  a  lie.  The  time  has  come 
for  us  to  declare  that  it  is  a  lie  by  word  and  deed.  I 
see  no  way  but  associating  for  work  instead  of  for 
strikes."  "It  is  my  belief,"  said  Kingsley,  "that 
not  self-interest,  but  self-sacrifice,  is  the  only  law 
upon  which  human  society  can  be  grounded  with  any 
hope  of  prosperity  and  permanence."  These  are 
appeals  for  order  and  renunciation  rather  than  for 
revolution  and  reprisal. 

7.  But  it  is  now  time  to  ask  seriously,  Did  Christ 
teach  the  equality  of  men  or  favor  the  equalization 
of  possessions  ?  When  the  ambitious  mother  of 
Zebedee's    children    came    to    him,    saying,   "  Grant 

11  Quoted  by  Laveleye,  op.  cit.  chap.  vii. 

12  Some  account  of  Christian  Socialism  in  England  is  given  by  Laveleye, 
op.  cit.,  supplementary  chapter ;  and  by  Ely,  in  his  French  and  German 
Socialism  in  Modern  Times,  chap.  xiv. 


I  I  6       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

that  these  my  two  sons  may  sit,  the  one  on  thy  right 
hand,  and  the  other  on  the  left,  in  thy  kingdom," 
Jesus  replied  that  she  knew  not  what  she  asked,  and 
disclosed  to  her  the  conditions  on  which  this  pre- 
eminence depends.  "To  sit  on  my  right  hand  and 
on  my  left,  is  not  mine  to  give,  but  it  shall  be  given 
to  them  for  whom  it  is  prepared  of  my  Father." 
Inequality  and  preeminence  are  not  denied,  even  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  preeminence  is  not  an 
arbitrary  gift  ;  it  is  prepared  for  the  deserving  in  the 
divine  order.  Jesus  goes  on  to  explain  that  among 
the  nations  preeminence  is  based  upon  dominion,  or 
lordship,  but  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  on  service. 
"  Whosoever  will  be  great  among  you,  let  him  be 
your  minister ;  and  whosoever  will  be  chief  among 
you,  let  him  be  your  servant."  Economic  greatness 
is  founded  upon  power,  moral  greatness  is  founded 
upon  love.  Inequality  was  recognized  in  both  and 
not  condemned  in  either.  Whatever  the  opinions  of 
the  fathers  may  be,  Christ  does  not  commend  equality 
in  the  distribution  of  wealth.  If  it  be  asserted  that 
equality  is  taught  in  the  brotherhood  of  man,  it  is 
sufficient  to  note  that  brothers,  equal  in  nature,  are 
not  equal  in  personal  powers,  personal  productive- 
ness, or  personal  deserts.  In  the  case  where  Christ 
was  appealed  to  as  judge  between  brothers,  he 
showed  no  concern  that  they  be  regarded  as  possess- 
ing equal  claims,  probably  because  he  thought  that 
in  equity  they  were  unequal. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  \\n 

u) 

III. 

1.  The  equitable  division  of  wealth,  which  cannot 
be  realized  by  artificial  aids  to  equality,  may  never- 
theless be  attained  by  other  means.  I  say  the 
"equitable"  division,  not  the  "equal"  division.  This 
proceeds  on  the  assumption  that  capital  should  be 
placed  in  the  hands  of  labor  only  by  progressive 
acquisition.  It  is  nature's  universal  method,  the 
method  of  growth,  illustrated  in  every  province  of 
being,  from  the  formation  of  a  crystal  to  the  consoli- 
dation of  a  character.  Suddenly  acquired  wealth 
seldom  remains  long  in  its  possessor's  hands,  or  finds 
its  place  there  even  briefly  without  demoralizing 
results.  The  creation  of  wealth  is  in  its  nature  a 
moral  discipline,  involving  industry,  patience,  tem- 
perance, and  self-sacrifice.  Wealth,  like  preeminence 
in  the  moral  world,  offers  its  reward  normally  only  to 
those  who  have  been  prepared  in  the  divine  order  to 
receive  it.  Without  its  virtues,  it  may,  indeed,  be 
dishonestly  acquired,  but  it  cannot  be  permanently 
retained. 

2.  The  mechanism  of  distribution  is  much  more 
perfect  than  we  are  wont  to  fancy.  The  wealth 
which  one  generation  accumulates,  the  next  scatters. 
Close  observers  hold  that  it  is  unusual  for  business 
success  to  remain  in  the  same  family  for  more  than 
three  generations.  Within  the  same  generation  the 
centrifugal  forces  are  acting.  We  see  the  successes 
of  men,  but  they  conceal  their  failures.  In  1881, 
Dun    &  Co.,  the  well-known   commercial   agents,   re- 


Il8       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OE  CHRISTIANITY. 

ported  that  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  wholesale  merchants 
doing  business  in  Chicago  in  1870  had  failed  in  that 
single  decade.  One  well  acquainted  with  such  affairs 
says  that  not  more  than  three  per  cent,  of  those  who 
embark  in  trade  end  life  with  success.  But,  from 
the  nature  of  it,  wealth  can  be  enjoyed  only  by  being 
distributed.  The  owner  of  a  vaultful  of  gold  has  no 
wealth  in  any  true  sense,  until  he  unlocks  the  vault 
and  disburses  the  gold.  He  cannot  gratify  the 
first  desire  without  contributing  to  the  social  need. 
If  he  wishes  interest,  he  must  place  his  dollars  in 
the  hands  of  one  who  needs  them  and  can  use  them. 
If  he  would  enjoy  a  dinner,  obtain  a  carriage,  or  build 
a  mansion,  he  must  put  his  coins  in  the  hands  of 
cooks,  wheelwrights,  or  architects,  who  in  turn  pass 
them  on  to  others.  There  is  no  wealth  that  does 
not  respond  to  social  need.  My  lord  the  Duke  of 
Westminster,  with  his  millions  of  acres  and  scores 
of  palaces,  cannot  have  his  dinner  to-day,  except  on 
condition  that  the  cook  and  the  butler  have  theirs 
also. 

3.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  man  who  has  no 
means  of  satisfying  social  need  ?  There  is  no  such 
man,  unless  he  is  an  idiot,  a  lunatic,  an  invalid,  or 
the  victim  of  some  misfortune.  He  then  becomes 
an  object  of  charity,  and  his  case  we  shall  consider 
later.  But  the  so-called  "  proletarian "  can  supply 
social  need.  Men  are  too  valuable  to  be  allowed  to 
starve  in  an  industrial  age.  As  Count  Tolstoi'  has 
said,  "  Laborers  are  necessary.  And  those  who 
profit  by  labor  will  always  be  careful  to  provide  the 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  119 

means  of  labor  for  those  who  are  willing  to  work."  13 
Why  should  a  man  who  can  do  nothing  for  himself 
complain  if  he  lives  upon  the  lowest  plane  ?  If  he 
can  do  better,  let  him  do  so  freely.  If  he  is  not 
above  the  status  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  let  him  take 
up  some  unimproved  land  and  raise  a  crop  of  wheat. 
Ii  he  can,  let  him  learn  a  trade  and  rise  in  it.  It  is 
the  old  way,  but  it  is  the  only  honest,  manly  way. 
If,  as  Haeckel  says,  the  development  of  the  individual 
man  is  a  summary  and  epitome  of  the  development  of 
the  race,  let  him  begin  where  Adam  did,  among  the 
fruit-trees,  and  work  his  way  up.  Away  with  the  sen- 
timentalism  and  snobbishness  of  socialism  and  of 
semi-socialism,  which  scoff  at  the  dignity  of  labor 
and  ridicule  the  hands  of  toil.  We  are  not  better 
than  our  fathers.  The  proletarian  of  to-day  may  be 
the  President  of  to-morrow,  as  several  of  our  ablest 
have  been.  The  true  American  does  not  want  an 
equality  which  he  has  not  earned.  He  wants  to  be 
a  man,  free  to  labor  where  and  how  he  chooses,  with 
liberty  of  contract  and  wages  proportioned  to  his 
usefulness  as  estimated  by  his  fellows,  and  through 
manhood  to  become  the  equal  of  any  in  the  life  of 
freedom  and  self-conscious  nobility. 

4.  No  doubt  much  may  be  hoped  for  from  indus- 
trial partnership  and  cooperation.  There  is  not  a 
village  in  the  land  where  there  are  not  men  who  have 
risen  from  poverty  to  independence  by  this  method. 
But  no  enterprise  will  succeed  where  there  is  not 
ability  to  plan  and  manage.     It  ought  not  to  succeed 

13  Count  Tolstoi's  My  Religion,  chap.  x. 


120       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

without  it.  It  would  be  putting  a  premium  on  stu- 
pidity and  inefficiency.  It  is  such  ability  that  finds 
large  rewards  as  wages  of  superintendence.  If 
cooperating  laborers  can  supply  this  among  them- 
selves, or  pay  for  it,  they  can  have  it ;  but  if  not, 
they  will  fail.  Whatever  may  be  said  in  abuse  of 
the  wage-system,  it  shows  the  superiority  of  brains 
to  muscle.  Voluntary  profit-sharing  on  the  part  of 
employers  may  be  judicious,  experience  must  decide 
this  ;  but  profit-sharing  cannot  be  logically  disassoci- 
ated from  loss-sharing,  which  in  the  end  might  leave 
small  advantage  to  employees.  The  practicability  of 
this  system  has  been  ably  advocated  by  Sedley  Tay- 
lor in  his  interesting  little  book  on  "Profit-sharing," 
but  it  implies  a  noble  altruism  not  attributed  to  the 
"economic  man."  In  spite  of  his  enthusiasm  as  an 
advocate  of  this  plan,  that  writer  closes  his  preface 
with  the  "profound  conviction  that  the  methods  de- 
scribed in  this  volume,  valuable  as  they  are  in  them- 
selves, constitute  no  panacea  ;  and  that  their  best 
fruits  can  be  reaped  only  by  men  who  feel  that  life 
does  not  consist  in  abundance  of  material  posses- 
sions, who  regard  stewardship  as  nobler  than  owner- 
ship, who  see  in  the  ultimate  outcome  of  all  true 
work  issues  reaching  beyond  the  limits  of  the  present 
dispensation,  and  who  act  faithfully  and  strenuously 
on  these  beliefs."  14  Enforced  profit-sharing,  like  en- 
forced arbitration,  is  a  pure  chimera.  It  is  essentially 
socialistic,  invading  the  right  of  contract,  and  will 
never  be  tolerated  by  a  free  people.     Here,  as  every  - 

14  Sedley  Taylor's  Profit-sharing  between  Capital  and  Labor,  preface. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  121 

where  in  the  discharge  of  the  social  functions,  Chris- 
tianity alone  can  solve  the  problem.  If  all  men  were 
Christians,  the  labor  problem  would  melt  away  and 
be  forgotten  in  the  sense  of  universal  brotherhood. 
Until  they  are,  there  is  no  cure  for  the  evils  born  of 
human  greed. 

5.  The  organization  of  labor  may  legitimately 
accomplish  much,  especially  in  mutual  help  and  in- 
surance. So  far  as  labor  organizations  aim  at 
creating  fraternal  feelings  among  workingmen,  the 
improvement  of  the  trades,  the  discovery  of  needs, 
and  the  distribution  of  men  where  they  are  wanted, 
they  are  highly  commendable  and  may  prove  useful. 
But  as  human  nature  is  constituted,  they  threaten  to 
become  the  most  oppressive  monopolies  in  the  land, 
binding  the  wills  and  consciences  of  men,  forcing 
upon  them  actions  contrary  to  their  judgments  and 
their  interests  ;  as  when,  in  the  strikes  among  the 
coal-heavers  in  New  York,  men  receiving  $20  per 
week,  promptly  and  satisfactorily  paid,  were  forced 
by  their  executive  committee  into  the  ridiculous  posi- 
tion, in  order  to  give  moral  support,  of  striking  for 
thirty-three  per  cent,  less  than  they  were  receiving  ! 
Such  centralized  corporations,  often  under  the  con- 
trol of  petty  tyrants  who  are  without  reason  or  con- 
science, veritable  dictators  without  responsibilities, 
constitute  an  imperium  in  imperio,  whose  power  and 
passion  may  well  be  dreaded. 

6.  The  Christian  conception  of  man  and  the  world 
does  not  afford  any  specific  criterion  for  the  division 
of  wealth.     Man  is  endowed  with  moral  freedom  and 


122        SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

the  world  is  a  scene  of  moral  discipline.  It  is  an 
order  in  which  hope  and  fear,  gain  and  loss,  success 
and  failure,  must  ever  be  possible,  for  they  are  essen- 
tial to  its  purpose.  Christ's  prayer  for  his  disciples 
was  not  that  they  might  be  taken  out  of  the  world, 
or  that  the  world  might  be  transformed  to  give  them 
peace  or  comfort,  but  that  they  might  be  kept  from 
the  evil.  It  is  not  what  we  have,  but  what  we  are, 
that  makes  life  sweet  and  blessed.  Wealth  is  not 
simply  to  gratify  but  to  unfold  our  natures.  Its 
ministry  of  sensations  passes  away,  but  its  ministry 
of  discipline  is  everlasting.  "  The  true  secret  of 
happiness,"  says  Canon  Westcott,  "  is  not  to  escape 
toil  and  affliction,  but  to  meet  them  with  the  faith 
that  through  them  the  destiny  of  man  is  fulfilled, 
that  through  them  we  can  even  now  reflect  the  image 
of  our  Lord  and  be  transformed  into  his  likeness." 

7.  "The  poor,"  said  Jesus,  "always  ye  have  with 
you."  I  cannot  see  that  it  will  ever  be  otherwise. 
It  is  proof  that  Christ  entertained  no  dream  of  social 
equality.  If  all  were  equalized  to-day,  there  would 
be  the  poor,  if  not  the  rich,  to-morrow.  The  virtue 
of  beneficence  will  never  be  outgrown  upon  the 
earth.  The  incapable,  the  unfortunate,  the  sick,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  idle  and  the  improvident,  will  ever 
sit  by  the  wayside,  waiting  for  the  coming  of  the 
Good  Samaritan.  For  the  Christian,  the  problem  of 
wealth's  distribution  is  largely  one  of  judicious  benefi- 
cence, for  the  world  has  learned  that  there  is 
beneficence  that  is  injudicious  and  even  injurious. 
An  undiscriminating  charity  has  fostered  mendicancy 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WEALTH.  I  23 

and  pauperism  and  there  are  countries  of  Europe 
where  no  church  is  without  its  waiting  beggar. 
William  Law,  the  author  of  the  "  Serious  Call,"  gave 
a  literal  interpretation  to  the  words  of  Christ,  "  Give 
to  him  that  asketh  thee,"  and  with  two  rich  friends 
resolved  to  deny  himself  as  much  as  possible  and 
supply  the  needs  of  every  applicant.  They  attracted 
a  great  crowd  of  idle  and  lying  mendicants  to  the 
neighborhood,  till  finally  the  community  had  to  peti- 
tion the  magistrates  to  interfere,  in  order  to  pre- 
vent the  utter  demoralization  of  the  parish.  But 
suppose  we  should  interpret  with  similar  literalness 
the  saying,  "  If  any  man  come  to  me  and  hate  not 
his  father,  and  mother,  and  wife,  and  children,  and 
brethren,  and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life  also,  he 
cannot  be  my  disciple  !  "  A  slow  beast  needs  sharp 
goads,  and  Christ  stirs  and  startles  the  conscience  by 
such  awakening  words,  not  as  giving  laws  of  action 
but  spurs  to  reflection.  Some  counselors,  like  Her- 
bert Spencer,  advise  us  to  follow  our  own  self-interest, 
without  concern  for  others,  with  the  assurance  that 
all  will  thus  be  happier,  because  more  independent. 
Between  the  misdirected  almsgiving  of  the  purely 
sympathetic  and  the  indifference  of  the  selfish,  lies 
the  narrow  way  of  wisdom,  walking  in  which,  Christ 
says,  "  Whenever  ye  will  ye  may  do  them  good." 
We  are  sometimes  told  that  we  ought  never  to  give 
directly,  but  only  through  organizations.  This  coun- 
sel overlooks  the  blessing  of  personal  ministration. 
The  Good  Samaritan  took  a  personal  pleasure  in 
relieving  misfortune.     We  need  the  contact  with  suf- 


124       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

fering  and  the  lessons  of  patience  and  faith  which  it 
often  teaches.  Besides,  it  is  sometimes  the  gift  of 
ourselves,  rather  than  of  our  money,  it  is  our  coun- 
sel, our  sympathy,  our  word  of  cheer,  that  would 
make  glad  the  heart  and  infuse  strength.  I  have  no 
word  of  criticism  for  the  noble  work  of  organized 
charity,  but  there  is  much  that  it  cannot  do,  because 
it  lacks  the  human  personality  which  in  God's  order, 
both  for  the  recipient  and  the  bestower,  should  be 
present  in  every  ministration.  And,  as  a  rule,  the 
best  gift  is  the  one  that  has  most  of  personality  in  it. 
All  true  strength  radiates  outward  from  the  centre, 
A  weak  heart  or  a  weak  mind  needs  a  strong  one. 
Encouragement,  advice,  knowledge,  a  place  to  work 
in,  a  nobler  work  to  do,  are  better  gifts  than  food 
and  clothing  ;  for  they  produce  these  and  confer  the 
power  that  continues  to  produce  them.  The  best 
form  of  beneficence  that  the  world  has  discovered  is 
helping  others  to  help  themselves. 


V. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    PROBLEMS 
OF  MARRIAGE. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE   PROBLEMS   OF 
MARRIAGE. 


I.    THE   PROBLEM   OF   POPULATION, 
i.    Immigration  from  the  Cradle. 

2.  The  Doctrine  of  Malthus. 

3.  The  Results  of  Malthusianism. 

4-    The  Inadequacy  of  Malthusianism. 

II.    THE    HISTORY   OF   THE   FAMILY. 

1 .  The  Four  Stages  of  Domestic  Evolution. 

2.  Monogamy,  an  alleged  Transition. 

3.  Socialism  and  the  Family. 

4.  Criticism  of  the  Evolution  Theorv. 

III.  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  FAMILY. 

1 .  Christ's  Doctrine  of  Monogamy. 

2.  The  Divine  Plan  in  the  Family. 

3.  The  Family  as  part  of  the  Moral  Order. 

4.  The  Consistency  of  New  Testament  Teaching. 

IV.  THE   DOMESTIC   STATUS. 

1.  The  Status  of  the  Child. 

2.  The  Status  of  the  Wife. 

3.  The  "  Emancipation  "  of  Woman. 

4.  The  Dissolution  of  Marriage. 


V. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    PROBLEMS   OF 
MARRIAGE. 

I. 

i.  "We  occupy  an  island,"  says  Laveleye,  in  his 
work  on  "Primitive  Property,"  "where  we  live  on 
the  fruits  of  our  labor  ;  a  shipwrecked  man  is  thrown 
up  by  the  sea :  What  is  his  right  ?  Can  he  say, 
invoking  the  unanimous  opinion  of  jurisconsults: 
You  have  occupied  the  land  by  virtue  of  your  title 
as  human  beings,  because  property  is  the  condition 
of  liberty  and  culture,  a  necessity  of  existence,  a 
natural  right  ;  but  I  also  am  a  man,  I  also  have  a 
natural  right  to  make  a  living ;  I  can,  then,  occupy 
with  the  same  title  with  yourselves  a  corner  of  this 
ground,  in  order  to  live  here  by  my  labor?"  1  This 
parable  is  illustrated  whenever  a  human  child  arrives 
in  the  world,  with  the  addition  that  the  child  not  only 
will  presently  want  his  corner  of  the  earth  in  which 
to  make  a  living,  but  immediately  needs  to  be  cared 
for  and  then  to  be  reared  to  maturity  before  he  can 
begin  his  self-support  by  labor.  Shall  we  give  him  a 
place,  or  shall  we  push  him  back  into  the  sea? 
Humanity  says  that  he  must  be  snatched  from  the 
waves,  even  at  the  cost  of  toil  and  risk  of  life.     But 

1  Laveleye,  De  la  Propriete  et  de  ses  Formes  Primitives,  p.  393. 


128       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

here  is  another  mouth  to  feed  and  a  new  subdivision 
of  wealth  is  inevitable.  Evidently,  we  have  before 
us  a  social  fact  that  gives  rise  to  important  problems. 
Society  has  an  interest  in  the  growth  of  population, 
and,  therefore,  in  the  conditions  and  forms  of 
marriage. 

2.  The  relation  of  population  to  subsistence  is 
regarded  by  Malthus  as  the  central  point  of  all 
social  problems.2  In  this  opinion  most  of  the  ortho- 
dox economists  of  England  substantially  concur. 
The  doctrine  of  Malthus  is,  that  population  tends  to 
increase  in  a  geometrical  ratio,  while  the  food-supply 
tends  to  increase  in  an  arithmetical  ratio.  In  plainer 
terms,  while  in  four  generations  of  men  population 
tends  to  repeat  itself  sixteen  times,  the  food-supply 
tends  to  repeat  itself  only  four  times.  The  critics 
who  have  attempted  to  answer  Malthus's  great  and 
epoch-making  "  Essay  on  the  Principle  of  Popula- 
tion "  have  often  done  that  worthy  clergyman  the 
grossest  injustice,  condemning  his  doctrine  as  essen- 
tially "immoral"  and  "infamous,"  without  appre- 
hending his  pure  and  philanthropic  motives  ;  and 
pronouncing  his  principle  "  false,"  without  even 
understanding  it.  Malthus  nowhere  says  that  popu- 
lation and  food-supply  do  actually  increase  and  vary 
in  these  ratios,  but  that  they  tend  to  do  so.  All  evi- 
dence that  they  do  not  so  vary  which  ignores  the 
tendency,  and  appeals  only  to  the  actual  state  of  the 
case,  simply  misses  the  mark.  His  book  is  largely 
occupied  in  showing  why  they  do  not  thus  vary  in 

2  Malthus's  Essay  on  the  Principle  of  Population. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  MARRIAGE. 


I2Q 


reality,  and  the  reasons  are  the  presence  in  human 
history  of  war,  pestilence,  and  other  depopulating 
causes.  These,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will  in  time  be 
abolished.  What,  then,  is  to  prevent  the  tendency 
from  realizing  itself  in  fact,  by  a  growth  of  popula- 
tion out  of  proportion  to  the  growth  of  food-supply  ? 
Malthus  answers  :  "  Preventive  checks,  such  as 
abstention  from  marriage  and  temperance  in  mar- 
riage." His  remedy  for  poverty  is  "prudential 
restraint  "  in  augmenting  the  race.  If  there  are  not 
too  many  mouths  to  feed,  there  will  be  bread  enough 
for  all.  Such  a  doctrine  is  not  to  be  silenced  with 
abuse,  for  it  is  evidently  based  on  laws  of  nature  and 
principles  of  logic. 

3.  The  Malthusian  remedy  for  poverty  and  distress 
is,  then,  the  limitation  of  marriages,  first  by  public 
opinion  and  then  by  law.  Let  us  examine  the  foun- 
dations upon  which  the  theory  rests  as  an  exposition 
of  the  cause  and  cure  of  poverty.  Overpopulation, 
if  it  existed  anywhere,  would  certainly  cause  poverty. 
There  are,  no  doubt,  countries  that  are  too  populous 
for  the  general  good  ;  that  they  are,  is  evident  from 
the  relief  that  follows  emigration ;  and  yet,  no 
doubt,  even  more  relief  might  result  from  better 
forms  of  land-tenure  and  industrial  life.  The  objec- 
tion offered  to  Malthusianism  by  Henry  George,3 
that  the  greater  the  number  of  producers  the  greater 
will  be  the  wealth  produced,  does  not  meet  the  case ; 
for  it  disregards  the  law  of  diminishing  returns  in 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  which  must  somewhere  be 

3  George's  Progress  and  Poverty,  chap.  iv. 


I30       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

reached  by  the  growth  of  population.  That  it  has 
been  nowhere  reached  is  irrelevant  to  the  question. 
It  is  absurd  to  say  that  there  cannot  be  too  many 
people  to  the  acre.  Nor  does  the  answer  of  Herbert 
Spencer,4  that  such  pressure  of  population  would 
result  in  the  elimination  of  the  weak  and  feeble,  and 
thus  improve  the  race,  constitute  an  answer  to  Mal- 
thus.  Even  though  this  struggle  for  existence  should 
result  in  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  there  is  no  assur- 
ance that  all  might  not  be  deteriorated  by  the  hard- 
ships of  the  competition,  as  all  are  in  Tierra  del 
Fuego.  The  just  and  true  criticism  upon  Malthusi- 
anism  relates  both  to  its  assumptions  and  its  reme- 
dies. That  theory  assumes  that  the  reproductive 
power  will  continue  to  act  in  geometrical  ratio ; 
whereas  we  know  that  as  organisms  rise  in  the  scale 
of  existence  reproductive  energy  is  lost.  Irish 
peasants  have  large  families  ;  but  the  aristocratic 
families,  with  abundance,  frequently  become  extinct. 
It  assumes  also  that  the  food-supply  is  capable  only 
of  arithmetical  increase,  whereas  scientific  agriculture 
is  continually  refuting  this  supposition.  Men  are 
better  fed  to-day,  in  all  civilized  lands,  than  they 
were  when  Malthus  wrote,  notwithstanding  the  vast 
increase  in  numbers.  In  truth,  it  requires  a  dense 
population  to  develop  natural  resources  and  a  nation's 
wealth  consists  in  its  men  not  less  than  in  its  terri- 
tory. With  regard  to  remedies,  Malthusianism,  in 
attempting  to  cure  one  evil,  creates  a  worse.  In 
France,  where  the  doctrine  of  "prudential  restraint" 

4  Spencer's  Principles  of  Biology,  vol.  ii,  part  vi,  chap.  xiii. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  MARRIAGE.  131 

has  been  most  widely  accepted,  we  see  statesmen 
and  physiologists  and  moralists  alike  deploring  the 
consequences,  while  in  Paris  marriages  have  de- 
creased, the  institution  of  vice  is  legally  established, 
and  one  third  of  the  children  are  born  outside  of  the 
bonds  of  wedlock.5  Even  in  Bavaria,  where  marriage 
is  legally  made  difficult,  there  is  an  exceedingly  large 
percentage  of  illegitimates.6  If  vice  is  worse  than 
poverty,  Malthusianism  is  not  its  best  remedy. 
Nature  has  secured  the  perpetuation  of  the  species 
by  instincts  too  powerful  to  be  annihilated  or  effect- 
ually restrained  by  legislation,  or  even  entirely  by 
the  individual  will.  If  children  are  not  born  in  the 
shelter  of  the  home  and  under  the  care  of  responsi- 
ble parents,  they  will  be  thrown  into  life  without 
other  protection  than  society  is  prepared  to  provide, 
either  by  law  or  charity. 

4.  The  fear  of  poverty  is  not  the  most  potent 
restraint  upon  the  practices  of  men.  The  proletarian 
indulges  the  hope  that  some  of  his  children  may 
prosper  and  be  of  service  to  him  in  his  declining 
years.  His  very  name  signifies  his  proclivity.  Upon 
him,  therefore,  the  Malthusian  doctrine  has  but  little 
influence.  A  stronger  motive  to  abstinence  from  mar- 
riage is  found  in  that  pessimism  that  regards  life  as 
a  scene  of  suffering  and  its  end  an  escape  from 
misery.  Buddha  was  its  great  apostle  in  the  East, 
and  though    his    millions    of    disciples    professed    to 

6  The  whole  subject  is  discussed,  with  valuable  recent  statistics,  by  Dr. 
Abel  Joire,  La  Population,  Paris,  1885. 
6  W.  Graham's  The  Social  Problem,  chap.  iii. 


132 


SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


believe  that  life  is  an  evil,  and  marriage,  which  is  its 
foundation,  is  a  source  of  sorrow,  the  swarming  pop- 
ulations of  Buddhist  countries  testify  to  the  impo- 
tency  of  this  religious  hostility  to  life  in  crushing  out 
the  instinct  to  render  it  perpetual.  The  country  of 
Schopenhauer  and  Von  Hartmann  is  the  most  prolific 
in  Europe,  in  spite  of  the  pessimism  which  their 
philosophy  inculcates.  The  same  pessimism  that 
censures  marriage  commends  suicide,  and  the  prohibi- 
tion of  the  first  is  about  as  rational  and  effective  as 
the  recommendation  of  the  other. 

<L     &       II. 

It  is  certain  that  no  Malthusian  precept  or  pessi- 
mistic philosophy  will  ever  prevent  the  fulfillment  of 
the  command  to  "multiply  and  replenish  the  earth." 
Society  cannot,  if  it  would,  restrain  this  tendency ; 
but  it  has  no  higher  interest,  either  from  an  ethical 
or  an  economical  point  of.  view,  than  the  mode  in 
which  this  command  is  obeyed.  The  germ  of  society 
itself  is  in  the  family.  What  is  its  history  and  what 
is  its  normal  constitution  ? 

i.  It  is  apparent  upon  a  little  reflection  that  the 
same  close  connection  which  Malthus  points  out 
between  population  and  subsistence,  between  family 
life  and  economic  life,  must  always  have  existed. 
A  condition  of  society  is  inconceivable  in  which  the 
multiplication  of  human  beings  and  their  support 
should  have  no  connection.  If  private  property  and 
private  marital  rights  are  associated,  so  are  communal 
property  and  community  of  wives.     If  the  study  of 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  MARRIAGE.  I  33 

primitive  peoples  reveals  communal  property,  it  also 
reveals  a  corresponding"  type  of  the  family.  Anthro- 
pologists of  the  evolutionist  school,  such  as  Bachofen, 
McLennan,  Spencer,  Lubbock,  and  Giraud-Teulon 
attempt  to  trace  the  evolution  of  the  family  from  a 
primitive  form  in  which  sexual  unions  were  tempo- 
rary and  promiscuous,  as  they  are  in  the  lower 
animals.7  Without  adducing  their  arguments,  or  for 
the  present  criticizing  their  results,  I  simply  summar- 
ize their  theory.  They  recognize  four  stages  of  pro- 
gression :  (1)  Promiscuity,  in  which  state  men  and 
women  associate  in  herds,  like  other  gregarious  ani- 
mals ;  (2)  Polyandry,  the  union  of  one  woman  with 
many  men,  whose  children  trace  their  descent  from 
their  mother  and  are  supported  by  the  group,  con- 
stituting the  "maternal  family;"  (3)  Polygyny,  the 
union  of  one  man  with  several  women,  who  are 
under  his  perpetual  authority,  and  whose  children 
take  his  name,  constituting  the  "paternal  family;" 
and  finally,  (4)  Monogamy,  the  union  of  one  man 
and  one  woman  for  life.  8 

2.  Consistent  evolutionists  maintain  that  the 
present  legalized  form  of  the  family  is  only  a  trans- 
ition to  some  other  and  unknown  type.  Says  Dr. 
Letourneau,    a    French     materialistic     evolutionist  : 


i  The  latest  and  most  compendious  treatment  of  the  whole  subject,  from 
the  evolutionist's  point  of  view,  is  that  of  Giraud-Teulon,  Les  Origines  du 
Manage  et  de  la  Famille.  The  Family,  an  Historical  and  Social  Study,  by 
C.  F.  and  Carrie  Butler  Thwing,  has  been  published  since  these  lectures 
were  written,  and  confirms  many  of  the  positions  taken  in  them. 

8  For  a  statement  of  this  order  of  development  as  a  necessary  and  estab- 
lished order,  see  Louis  Bridel,  La  Femme  et  le  Droit. 


134       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

"  In  our  European  marriage,  where  the  barbarous 
and  feudal  customs,  the  legal  traditions  of  ancient 
Rome  and  Christian  ideas,  have  arrived  at  a  crippled 
compromise,  woman  is  neither  slave  nor  servant  ; 
she  is  simply  a  minor,  and  the  law  makes  of  the 
conjugal  union  an  association  which  death  alone  can 
dissolve,  at  least  in  the  majority  of  Catholic 
countries.  Will  it  always  be  so  ?  Evidently  not. 
In  the  evolution  of  societies  there  is  no  last  word. 
Already,  legal  divorce,  admitted,  or  upon  the  point 
of  being  admitted,  in  different  countries  of  Europe, 
has  destroyed  the  fiction  of  monogamic  and  indis- 
soluble marriage.  .  .  .  No  form  of  marriage  is  abso- 
lutely necessary,  and  many  forms  have  been  tried. 
There  will,  assuredly,  still  be  innovations.  In  what 
sense  ?  We  can  hardly  conjecture  ;  but  it  will  surely 
be  in  the  sense  most  useful  to  society.  Utility 
varies  with  the  constitution  of  societies.  Where  the 
State  does  not  interest  itself  in  the  rearing  of  chil- 
dren, a  more  rigorous  monogamy  is  necessary ;  the 
family  ought  to  be  solidly  constituted,  for  it  will  be 
only  in  its  bosom  that  new  generations  can  find 
shelter,  protection,  education.  On  the  contrary, 
where  individual  interests  go  on  uniting  themselves 
more  and  more,  the  State  will  gradually  tend  to 
substitute  itself  for  the  family  in  the  care  of  rearing 
its  future  citizens.  Little  by  little  the  State  will 
occupy  itself  less  with  the  regulation  of  marriage, 
and  more  with  the  formation  of  new  generations ; 
the  care  of  infancy  will  become  for  it  a  capital 
interest ;  sexual  unions  in  themselves  will  tend  to  be 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  MARRIAGE.  1 35 

more  and  more  considered  as  acts  of  private  life. 
To  raise  the  child,  this  is  what  the  community  will 
aspire  to  accomplish,  and  it  will  charge  itself  more 
and  more  with  this  important  care ;  then  it  will 
have  no  reason  for  not  leaving  a  much  greater  lati- 
tude to  conjugal  contracts."9  Then  follows  a  mock- 
ing paragraph  on  the  "sanctuary  of  the  family," 
which,  for  very  shame,   I  forbear  from  quoting. 

3.  It  is  impossible  to  separate  the  socialistic  doc- 
trine of  property  from  the  socialistic  doctrine  of  the 
family.  The  one  places  all  property  in  the  hands 
of  the  State ;  the  other,  consistently  and  even  with 
logical  necessity,  places  the  care  of  children  in  the 
same  hands  where  the  means  of  subsistence  have 
been  deposited,  leaving  individuals  to  become 
parents  under  the  impulse  of  elective  affinities  and 
the  State  to  rear  and  educate  their  offspring !  Such 
has  been  the  teaching  of  communism  and  socialism 
from  Plato  down  to  the  present.  Community  of 
property  involves  a  practical  community  of  wives. 
Every  argument  that  sustains  the  former  sustains 
the  latter  also.  I  need  not  overburden  this  outline 
with  citations  to  prove  the  close  association  between 
the  attacks  on  private  property  and  the  war  upon 
the  family.  Robert  Owen  denounced  marriage  as 
one  of  the  three  curses  of  society,  private  wealth 
and  religion  being  the  other  two.  Fourier  com- 
mended the  abolition  of  marriage.  The  socialistic 
programmes  openly  proclaim  the  dissolution  of  the 
family  as  an  end   to   be  desired.       "  Love   ought   to 

a  Letourneau,  La  Sociologie  d'apres  l'Ethnographie,  libre  iv,  chap,  i,  xvi. 


I36       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

be  free,  and  relieved  from  all  codes  and  rituals," 
says  the  Havre  Programme,  which  also  advocates  the 
support  of  children  at  public  cost.  At  an  assembly 
of  German  socialists  in  Berlin,  one  of  the  orators, 
Jorissen,  said  that,  in  the  state  of  the  future,  only 
love  should  direct  the  unions  of  the  sexes.  Between 
the  wife  and  the  prostitute  there  was  only  a  quanti- 
tative difference,  for  both  sold  themselves  for  a 
living.  Children  should  belong  to  the  State  and  be 
maintained  by  it.10  Though  not  universally  accepted 
by  those  present,  these  views  were  not  opposed  on 
any  principle  and,  indeed,  could  not  be  by  socialists 
without  defect  of  logic.  An  American  advocate  of 
socialism,  Gronlund,  regards  marriage  as  merely  a 
"commercial  institution,"  and  admits  that  the  new 
organization  of  society  will  "considerably  modify 
marriage,"  and  will  "facilitate  divorces."11  It  is 
evident  that  socialism  stands  committed  to  the 
abolition  of  the  family.  The  monogamic  family  is 
the  source  of  the  most  potent  motive  to  the  acqui- 
sition of  private  wealth.  Evidence  would  be  super- 
fluous to  show  that  men  who  are  improvident  before 
marriage  become  economical  and  prudent  in  the 
family  relation.  This  holds  good,  notwithstanding 
the  powerful  motive  to  saving  in  anticipation  of 
marriage.  The  most  efficient  protection  of  private 
property  is  that  conjugal  and  parental  love  that  is 
produced  only  where  two  beings  are  indissolubly 
united,  and  paternity  is  guarded   by  a   strict   fidelity. 

10  Woolsey's  Communism  and  Socialism,  p.  257. 

11  Gronlund's  The  Cooperative  Commonwealth,  chap.  x. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  MARRIAGE. 


l37 


It  is  also  the  most  powerful  incentive  to  personal 
industry,  the  mainspring  of  all  wealth  creation. 
Socialistic  theorists  do  not  perceive,  what  is  very 
obvious  upon  reflection,  that  a  social  condition  in 
which  women  were  common,  and  in  which  all  chil- 
dren were  supported  by  the  public,  would  be  one  in 
which  idleness  and  sensuality  would  drive  out  indus- 
try and  affection,  the  true  factors  of  wealth,  and 
plunge  society  into  universal  poverty.  Those 
primitive  types  of  society  in  which  tribal  property 
and  tribal  marriage  were  united,  were  low  in  the 
scale  of  wealth  and  in  every  trait  of  civilization. 
It  is  because  religion  sanctions  and  protects  the 
monogamic  family  that  socialism,  bent  on  destroying 
private  property,  and  the  family  as  its  cause,  hates 
and  antagonizes  religion  also.  We  do  not  reach 
the  heart  of  social  problems  until  we  realize  the 
inseparable  connection  between  property,  the  family, 
and  religion,  alike  threatened  by  socialism,  their 
common  foe.  As  long  as  Christianity  endures,  the 
monogamic  family  will  endure ;  as  long  as  the  love 
of  a  true  wife  and  her  children  fills  the  heart  of 
man,  private  property  will  be  desired  and  defended 
as  a  right,  for  their  sakes.  Hence  it  is  that  social- 
ists reject  every  form  of  Christian  overture  and 
alliance. 

4.  It  might  be  scientifically  maintained  that  monog- 
amy is  the  natural  and  normal  form  of  sexual  union, 
because  it  is  the  last  term  in  the  order  of  evolution, 
unless  development  should  return  to  lower  and  aban- 
doned forms  and   become   retrogressive.     This    is  a 


I38       SOCJAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

sufficient  answer  to  the  evolutionist.  It  might  also 
be  argued  from  the  numerical  equilibrium  of  the 
sexes,  the  proportion  of  men  and  women  being  sub- 
stantially equal.  But  there  is  no  scientific  reason  for 
abandoning  the  idea  of  the  family  as  absolute  from 
the  beginning,  commencing  as  a  primeval  monogamy, 
from  which  degenerate  races  have  fallen  away.  This 
doctrine  which  is  taught  in  the  Scriptures  still  under- 
lies all  the  great  works  on  jurisprudence  and  is  con- 
firmed by  Sir  Henry  Maine  in  his  investigations  into 
ancient  law.  Even  Darwin  rejected  a  universal 
primitive  promiscuity  as  represented  by  Sir  John 
Lubbock,  on  the  ground  that  even  among  the  anthro- 
poid apes  the  highest  are  "strictly  monogamous."  12 
The  derivation  of  names  and  relationship  from 
the  maternal  side,  adduced  by  Morgan  as  evidence  of 
polyandry,  is  otherwise  explained  by  the  German 
anthropologist  Peschel,  who  cites  numerous  instances 
to  show  the  high  sense  of  conjugal  fidelity  among 
tribes  where  this  strange  mode  of  tracing  relationship 
is  in  vogue.  He  also  asserts  that  Bachofen's  idea  of 
a  primitive  gynaeocracy,  or  maternal  headship,  can  be 
proved  only  by  adducing  ancient  myths  of  uncertain 
date  upon  which  a  forced  interpretation  has  been 
placed.13  The  evidence  upon  which  the  whole 
theory  of  the  evolution  of  the  family  rests  is  derived 
from  the  study  of  the  lowest  scattered  tribes  of  modern 

12  Darwin's  Descent  of  Man,  part  iii,  chap,  xxii,  p.  590. 

13  Peschel's  Races  of  Man,  pp.  218,  237.  Since  these  lectures  were  deliv- 
ered, Prof.  J.  G.  Schurman,  of  Cornell  University,  has  published  an  able 
critique  on  the  views  of  McLennan  and  Morgan  in  his  Ethical  Import  of 
Darwinism,  chap.  vi. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  MARRIAGE.  I  39 

men,  and  involves  the  assumption  that  their  practices 
are  to  be  regarded  as  those  of  primeval  times.  The 
prehistoric  monogamy  of  the  Aryan  races,  the  wide 
prevalence  of  the  patria  potcstas,  or  paternal  suprem- 
acy, the  ancient  ancestor-worship  of  the  Chinese  and 
the  preservation  of  ideas  of  monogamy  even  among  the 
lowest  races,  — all  render  vastly  more  probable  a 
partial  degeneration  from  a  higher  type  of  family  than 
a  general  primitive  promiscuity.  Such  contributions 
to  this  subject  as  that  of  Robertson  Smith,  in  his 
recent  work,  "  Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia," 
do  not  reach  back  far  enough  in  time  to  determine  the 
primeval  truth.  That  every  age,  not  excluding  the 
present,  has  known  something  of  all  the  possible  devi- 
ations from  the  normal  marriage  relation,  is  highly 
probable ;  and,  therefore,  the  fragmentary  evidence 
which  such  writers  gather  with  infinite  pains  cannot 
solve  the  problem.  A  theorist  of  the  fiftieth  century 
might  argue  with  equal  cogency  from  certain  facts  of 
our  own  land  and  time,  that  a  Christian  people  once 
practised  polygamy. 

III. 

1.  What  has  Christianity  to  say  to  these  specula- 
tions ?  The  time  of  Christ  was  one  in  which  the 
earlier  Semitic  polygamy  had  been  outgrown,  though 
successive  polygamy  was  still  tolerated  by  the  extreme 
laxity  of  divorce.  That  toleration  of  "  hardness  of 
heart,"  which  the  legislation  of  Moses  permitted  with- 
out encouraging,  the  Rabbi  Hillel  had  so  far  indulged 
as  to  grant  divorce  if  the  wife  burned  the  food  ;  and 


I40        SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

the  popular   Rabbi  Akiba,  who   is  said  to   have  had 
eighty  thousand  disciples,  allowed  the  husband  to  put 
away  his  wife  when  he  found   one  more  beautiful,  or 
upon    any  arbitrary   pretext    whatever.       After    the 
example  of  Salome,  the  sister  of  Herod  the   Great, 
who  repudiated  her  I&lumean  husband,  women  also 
initiated  divorce,  and  the    Samaritan    woman    whom 
Jesus  met  at  the  well  had  had  five   husbands.     Christ 
opposed  the  popular  teaching  in  his  reply  to  his  ques- 
tioners.    His  doctrine  gave  to  the  indissoluble  union 
of  two  persons,   which   he  declared   was  the  divine 
intention  from  the  beginning,  a  genuine  rehabilitation, 
and  lifted  the  marriage  relation  from  the  low  level  of 
mere  mutual  agreement  to  the  high  plane  of  a  religious 
bond,  sealing  it  for  the  Christian  ages  with  the  precept, 
"What  God  hath  joined  together,   let    not   man  put 
asunder."     We  have  already  traced  the  influence  of 
this   new   enunciation    of   the    absolute  principle   of 
marriage  upon  the  entire  Christian  world.     Whatever 
difference  of  opinion  there  has  been  upon  the  essence 
of  it,  whether  it  is  a  status,  a  civil  contract,  a  sacra- 
ment, or  the  union  of  these,  there  has  been  no  division 
of  doctrine  as  to  the  form    of   marriage   taught  by 
Christ,  as  an  essentially  permanent  relation  between 
one  man  and  one  woman,  inviolable  by  all  and  to  be 
abrogated  for  one  cause  only,  a  schism  in  the  flesh 
which  marriage  has  made  one. 

2.  The  family,  therefore,  as  instituted  by  the 
Creator  and  explained  by  Christ  is  not  a  mere  human 
invention  or  product  of  evolution.  It  consists  of 
a  husband,  a  wife,  and  their  children.     It  is  a  primor- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  MARRIAGE.  14 1 

dial  society,  a  social  molecule  within  the  greater 
social  organism,  through  which  life  is  transmitted  and 
the  whole  normally  augmented.  The  divinity  of  its 
origin  is  as  clearly  attested  by  the  physical  and  men- 
tal aptitudes  of  its  constituent  members  as  by  the 
words  of  Scripture.  The  eloquent  Abbe  Vidieu  thus 
portrays  these  aptitudes  :  "  To  man  God  gave  power 
as  a  sceptre,  thus  establishing  him  as  the  head  of  the 
family ;  but  of  the  tenderness  of  woman  he  made 
another  sceptre  more  gentle  and  not  less  potent.  To 
the  king  he  gave  justice,  to  the  queen  clemency  :  in 
the  heart  of  man  he  put  courage,  but  in  the  heart  of 
woman  that  moral  energy  with  which  she  overcomes 
suffering.  To  the  one  have  been  confided  the  keep- 
ing and  defence  of  the  family ;  to  the  other  the  care 
of  its  happiness.  While  the  chief  directs  the  way, 
sometimes  difficult,  offering  to  his  companion  a  sup- 
port, she,  by  her  tenderness,  consoles  and  fortifies 
his  heart,  diffusing  joy  even  in  the  midst  of  the  tem- 
pest ;  upon  the  wounds  made  by  the  briers  and  hard- 
ness of  the  road  the  one  pours  wine,  the  other  balm. 
The  family  and  society  are  put  in  relation  by  the 
man  fulfilling  the  duties  of  a  citizen ;  woman,  in  her 
dwelling,  concealing  the  charms  of  her  virtue  and 
devoting  herself  to  her  family,  at  the  same  time  giv- 
ing herself  to  society.  Man  dominates  by  reason, 
woman  by  goodness  ;  for  the  divine  ray  that  descends 
upon  each  hearthstone,  upon  the  one  sheds  more  of 
light,  upon  the  other  more  of  love.  But  between  the 
heart  of  man  and  that  of  woman  is  an  incessant 
irradiation,  a  constant  interchange  of  all  that  is  most 


/ 


I42       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

intimate  in  human  nature,  making  one  soul  of  these 
two  souls,  and  recomposing  outside  of  themselves 
the  ray  where  affections,  cares,  and  joys  unite  in  the 
person  of  the  child.  The  family  is  complete,  but  duties 
are  increased  and  deepened,  the  role  of  each  parent 
is  more  sharply  denned.  For  the  child  is  the  hope 
of  the  family  and  the  nation ;  the  child  is  humanity 
perpetuating  itself,  advancing  in  the  way  of  perfection 
or  retrograding  toward  the  shades  of  barbarism  ;  it  is 
the  alternative  between  virtue  and  vice,  truth  and 
error,  light  and  darkness,  love  and  hate,  wealth  and 
misery,  order  and  chaos,  glory  and  shame,  progression 
and  degradation.  The  child  is  the  fragile  and  delicate 
blossom  which  the  wind  can  bruise  and  the  sun 
wither ;  it  is  the  little  fledgling  which  the  mother 
protects  with  her  wing  and  shelters  with  its  soft 
warmth  ;  it  is  in  the  blossom  of  all  nature  the  most 
feeble,  the  most  helpless  of  beings.  It  would  die 
without  its  mother ;  it  is  her  milk  which  sustains  it ; 
it  is  her  soft  hands  alone  that  can  touch  without 
bruising  its  delicate  members ;  her  caresses  and 
kisses  alone  can  impart  the  warmth  of  life."  14  Its 
first  and  continuous  need  is  love,  and  how  shall  this 
be  satisfied  if  the  mother  does  not  watch  over  it  with 
tender  solicitude  and  the  father  make  provision  for 
the  material  wants  of  both  ? 

3.  The  family  constitutes  an  essential  part  of  the 
moral  order.  It  is  within  it  alone  that  the  best  ele- 
ments of  human  nature,  both  ethical  and  economical, 
can  be  found.     It  brings  to  fulfillment  the  life  of  man 

14  L'Abbe  Vidieu,  Famille  et  Divorce,  chapitre  i. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  MARRIAGE.  143 

in  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  paternity.  These 
are  at  once  the  factors  of  material  wellbeing  and  of 
moral  discipline.  The  indissoluble  bond  alone  can 
hold  man  to  his  duties  and  perfect  in  him  the  indus- 
try, the  patience,  the  temperance,  the  self-sacrifice 
which  condition  the  completion  of  his  manhood.  If 
he  can  escape  the  obligations  of  marriage  at  will,  he 
can  withdraw  from  this  school  of  discipline  when- 
ever he  feels  impatient  or  indolent,  and  the  whole 
future  of  the  man  is  lost  in  vagabondism  and  self- 
indulgence.  But  if  marriage  is  so  much  for  man, 
what  is  it  for  woman  ?  It  is  at  once  a  guard  to  her 
virtue,  a  field  for  her  affections,  a  protection  to  her 
rights,  a  vocation  for  her  noblest  powers,  and  an 
opportunity  for  her  self-realization.  It  is  in  the  home 
where  love  unites  two  complementary  natures  that 
both  are  brought  to  perfection.  The  necessity  of 
compromise,  of  growing  together  in  the  interests  of 
peace,  of  mutual  helpfulness  and  forbearance,  molds 
the  characters  of  both  and  wears  away  the  angularities 
of  selfishness.  But  it  is  above  all  for  the  child  that 
marriage  should  be  permanent.  The  child  needs 
both  father  and  mother ;  the  firmness  and  judgment 
of  the  one  and  the  gentleness  and  inspiration  of  the 
other.  Who  can  estimate  the  misfortune  of  one  who 
has  missed  the  influence  of  either  of  these  two  fac- 
tors of  character  ?  It  is  like  being  born  without 
some  organ  or  member  of  the  body.  When  charity 
and  philanthropy  have  done  their  best  to  realize  arti- 
ficially the  conditions  of  a  home  in  an  asylum  for 
orphans,  it  still  seems  to  us  but  a  dreary  place,  like 


T44       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

a  hospital  for  the  sick.  How  accursed,  then,  is  that 
social  philosophy  that  would  destroy  the  home, 
establish  free  marriage  as  a  rule  of  society,  transfer 
the  care  of  children  to  the  impersonal  guardianship 
of  the  State,  and  render  every  child  an  orphan  from 
its  birth  ! 

4.  A  false  or  superficial  interpretation  of  the  New 
Testament  has  created  the  impression  in  some  minds 
that  the  Christian  idea  of  marriage  is  vacillating  and 
contradictory,  sometimes  commending  and  sometimes 
condemning  the  married  state.  Nothing  can  be  more 
clear  and  harmonious  than  the  teachings  of  Christ 
and  his  apostles  when  viewed  in  the  light  of  their 
special  applications.  "  Marriage,"  says  the  writer  to 
the  Hebrews,  "is  honourable  in  all."  Paul,  in  his 
First  Letter  to  Timothy,  rebukes  those  who  forbid 
to  marry,  and  exhorts  "younger  women  "  to  "marry, 
bear  children,  guide  the  house."  And  yet  there 
were  circumstances  under  which  the  rule  could  not 
be  wisely  applied.  In  times  of  calamity  and  danger 
he  dissuaded  from  marriage,  though  even  in  those 
trying  times  marriage  was  not  represented  as  a  sin. 
The  wedded  state  might  also  interfere  with  spiritual 
duty.  When  pleasing  one's  wife  prevented  pleasing 
the  Lord,  when  the  love  of  wife  and  children  re- 
strained men  from  the  public  committment  of  them- 
selves to  Christian  faith,  when  wedlock  endangered 
the  unequal  yoking  together  of  Christians  and  Pagans, 
with  a  divided  household,  Paul  counseled  against  mar- 
riage. There  is  no  reason  for  thinking  that  he  would 
not  display  the  same  conservative  and  prudent  spirit 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   MARRIAGE.  145 

to-day.  It  is  not  the  number  of  children  added  to 
society,  but  the  number  of  healthy,  well-reared,  and 
well-trained  children  that  increases  human  happiness, 
social  prosperity,  and  moral  life.  The  constitutionally 
feeble,  the  diseased,  the  pauperized,  the  incapable, 
those  who  cannot  provide  for  the  wants  of  a  family, 
ought  certainly  not  to  marry.  While  Christianity 
places  no  moral  virtue  in  celibacy  in  itself,  it  honors 
a  voluntary  singleness  of  life,  devoted  to  high  moral 
and  spiritual  aims.  The  enforced  celibacy  of  the 
clergy  is  a  perversion  of  Christian  teaching,  without 
apostolic  warrant  in  either  precept  or  example.  It  is 
a  sufficient  refutation  of  the  Romish  theory  that  the 
apostle  whom  it  honors  as  the  first  primate  of  the 
Church  is  the  one  whom  we  certainly  know  to  have 
been  a  married  man. 

4f  IV. 

The  union  of  persons  in  the  family  is  the  ground 
of  certain  rights,  because  it  controls  and  modifies  that 
unfolding  of  powers  and  capacities  which  underlies 
all  other  rights  as  the  root  of  all.  Christianity  affects 
society  by  its  teachings  concerning  these  ethical  rela- 
tions, and  therefore  enters  most  influentially  into  the 
solution  of  social  problems. 

1.  When  a  child  is  born  into  the  world  it  is  not 
with  its  own  consent,  and  its  relation  to  its  parents 
is  not  one  of  contract,  but  one  of  status.  What  does 
the  status  of  a  child  imply  ?  As  a  moral  being  it  will 
in  time  be  capable  of  duty.  It  is  by  nature  morally 
free  —  a  person.     But  personality,  with  its  attributes 


I46       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

of  obligation  to  duty  and  moral  freedom,  implies 
rights  as  the  essential  conditions  of  self-realization. 
The  child's  first  right  is  to  support.  Its  second  right 
is  to  instruction  and  training  that  will  fit  it  for  the 
performance  of  duty.  These  rights  are  self-evident, 
like  the  laborer's  right  to  the  fruit  of  his  labor.  But 
every  right  implies  a  correlative  duty.  Whose  duty 
is  it  to  support  and  instruct  the  child  ?  Not  primarily 
the  duty  of  the  State,  for  the  State  has  not  been  con- 
sulted upon  the  question  of  its  being.  If  the  State 
were  to  determine  the  conditions  of  marriage  and 
the  number  of  offspring  it  would  be  otherwise.  If 
ever  a  society  should  exist  in  which  the  duties  of 
support  and  education  should  be  assumed  by  the 
State,  it  would  assuredly  claim  the  correlative  rights 
that  are  involved  in  this  obligation.  But  the  child's 
existence  is  owing  to  parental,  not  social  action  ;  and 
therefore  the  duty  of  its  sustenance  and  training  falls 
upon  its  parents.  And  here  two  important  principles 
emerge  into  light  :  first,  that  the  parents  are  morally 
responsible  for  the  welfare  and  culture  of  their  child, 
and  culpable  if  they  have  not  made  provision  for  the 
discharge  of  their  duties  ;  and  second,  that  they  them- 
selves, though  their  marriage  is  at  first  a  contract,  have 
entered  into  a  status  and  created  a  status  for  their 
child  which  they  cannot  voluntarily  dissolve.  The 
bearing  of  this  upon  divorce  is  evident,  but  for  the 
present  let  us  consider  its  relation  to  inheritance. 
The  right  of  heirship  is  maintained  throughout  the 
Scriptures  and  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  idea 
of  the  family  as  divinely  instituted.     The  historical 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  MARRIAGE. 


147 


researches  of  Sir  Henry  Maine  have  demonstrated 
that  inheritance  is  a  universally  recognized  right, 
natural  and  fundamental,  indissolubly  connected  with 
filiation,  and  equitably  terminable  only  for  a  specific 
cause.15  Testamentary  law,  authorizing  the  disposi- 
tion of  property  by  will,  and  primogeniture,  the  exclu- 
sive inheritance  of  the  eldest  son,  are  late  and  artificial 
additions  to  early  custom,  wholly  unknown  to  our 
German  and  English  forefathers  until  the  first  was 
borrowed  from  Roman  jurisprudence  and  the  second 
was  introduced  by  feudalism.  The  right  of  making 
a  will  is  sometimes  used  by  paternal  ambition  to 
perpetuate  a  family  name  or  to  secure  property  from 
being  wasted,  without  regard  to  the  interest  of  the 
disinherited ;  and  primogeniture,  happily  not  bor- 
rowed by  us  from  the  English  law,  is  certainly  a 
perversion  of  natural  right.  Testamentary  law  was 
invented,  as  its  history  shows,  to  secure,  and  not  to 
limit,  inheritance.  A  wholly  unwarranted  interfer- 
ence is  now  seriously  proposed  by  certain  speculative 
minds  in  the  form  of  a  legal  limitation  of  inheritance, 
fixing  by  law  the  maximum  of  property  which  may 
be  transmitted  by  a  father  to  his  children.  No  device 
could  be  more  arbitrary,  absurd,  or  inequitable.  Ar- 
bitrary, because  no  rule  can  be  discovered  for  fixing 
this  maximum.  Absurd,  because  every  father  would 
evade  it  by  transferring  his  property  during  his  life- 
time. Inequitable,  because  it  disregards  the  status 
into  which  a  child  is  born  and  which  it  has  been  the 
object  of  his  father's  life  to  create  for  his  child  as 

16  Maine's  Ancient  Law,  chap.  vi. 


I48       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

well  as  for  himself.  It  is  frequently  contended  that, 
though  we  may  admit  the  validity  of  the  right  of 
private  property  during  its  possessor's  lifetime,  the 
right  is  extinguished  by  his  death  ;  but  here  it  is 
forgotten  that  testamentary  disposition  is  the  act  of 
a  living  man,  not  a  dead  one,  and  that  the  property 
of  an  intestate  is  a  part  of  the  status  of  his  family 
who  survive  him,  created  by  him  for  them  while 
invested  with  proprietorship.  When  it  is  remembered 
that  the  love  of  children  is  usually  the  strongest  mo- 
tive in  the  production  and  conservation  of  wealth,  it 
is  evident  that  this  species  of  robbery  is  as  devoid 
of  justice  as  any  other  socialistic  subterfuge  for  the. 
destruction  of  proprietary  rights.  It  is  the  glory  of 
Christianity  that,  as  Sir  Henry  Maine  has  said,  "  it 
has  always  maintained  the  sanctity  of  wills."  The 
right  of  inheritance  is  a  fundamental  postulate  of 
Christian  theology.  "If  a  son,  then  an  heir," 
reasons  the  great  apostle.  There  is  no  nobler 
impulse  than  that  which  prompts  a  father  by  the 
toil,  prudence,  and  self-sacrifice  of  his  own  life  to 
offer  to  his  children  advantages  which  he  himself  has 
never  known. 

2.  The  family  is  a  corporation  initiated  by  contract 
but  terminating  in  a  status.  It  is  a  moral  status 
whose  purpose  is  fulfilled,  not  in  the  birth  and  train- 
ing of  children,  but  in  moral  love.  Marriage,  con- 
sidered as  a  contract  merely,  scarcely  rises  above  the 
dignity  of  concubinage.  Children  are  not  so  much 
the  purpose  as  the  blessing  of  wedlock,  for  otherwise 
unfruitfulness  alone  would  be  a  sufficient  ground  of 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  MARRIAGE.  149 

divorce.  If  marriage  is  a  moral  status,  what  is 
woman's  position  in  it  ?  No  doubt  it  partly  depends 
upon  the  usage  and  customs  of  a  particular  time  and 
place,  for  in  entering  marriage  she  knows  the  status 
she  may  expect.  But  what,  ideally,  and  in  the  Chris- 
tian sense,  is  the  status  of  a  married  woman  ?  It  is  not 
a  complete  subordination  of  herself  and  extinction  of 
her  moral  personality  by  absorption  into  the  person- 
ality of  her  husband.  She  still  has  rights  and  duties 
and  does  not  cease  to  be  both  free  and  responsible. 
She  is  in  no  sense  a  slave.  It  is  from  that  condition 
that  Christian  marriage  has  emancipated  her.  Her 
role  is  "obedience,"  but  only  "in  the  Lord."  The 
moral  law,  or  law  of  God,  intrenches  her  and  consti- 
tutes her  defence.  Her  husband  cannot  rightly  com- 
pel her  to  disregard  it,  and  she  is  for  herself  the 
judge  of  its  applications.  The  union  is  a  completely 
ethical  one,  for  to  her  duty  to  obey  is  correlated  her 
right  to  be  loved.  "  Husbands,  love  your  wives,"  is 
as  imperative  as,  "Wives,  be  obedient  to  your  hus- 
bands." Marriage  is  a  subordination  of  the  wife  to 
the  leadership  of  her  husband,  but  cannot  be  a 
renunciation  of  personality.  She  has  rights.  She 
may  think  and  believe  and  even  act  contrary  to  her 
husband's  direction.  Has  she  also  a  right  to  inde- 
pendent property  ?  This  must  depend  upon  the  pre- 
marital contract,  for  marriage  is  a  union  of  persons, 
not  an  annihilation  of  preexisting  rights,  which  the 
wife  may  choose  to  retain.  In  our  Christian  States 
this  right  is  now  generally  conceded.  The  wisdom 
and  justice  of    merging  her  property  with  her  hus- 


I5O       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

band's  estate  must  be  determined  by  specific  circum- 
stances. Her  natural  right  to  a  share  of  her 
husband's  property  is  very  clear.  As  co-producer  of 
his  wealth  and  as  dependent  upon  him  by  her  subor- 
dination in  family  life,  she  is  evidently  entitled  to 
support  and  inheritance.  Otherwise  she  would  often 
lose  the  fruits  of  her  labors.  "  The  provision  for 
the  widow,"  says  Sir  Henry  Maine,  "was  attributable 
to  the  exertions  of  the  Church,  which  never  relaxed 
its  solicitude  for  the  interest  of  wives  surviving  their 
husbands,  winning,  perhaps,  one  of  the  most  ardu- 
ous of  its  triumphs  when,  after  exacting  for  two  or 
three  centuries  an  express  promise  from  the  husband 
at  marriage  to  endow  his  wife,  it  at  length  succeeded 
in  engrafting  the  principle  of  dower  on  the  custom- 
ary law  of  all  western  Europe."  1G  Within  fifty  years 
the  legal  status  of  married  women  has  wholly 
changed.  Under  the  common  law,  the  family  was  a 
legal  unit,  represented  by  the  husband.  Under  mod- 
ern statutes,  in  most  of  our  American  States,  it  is 
now  a  legal  duality,  in  which  two  distinct  legal  per- 
sons are  recognized.  Husband  and  wife  are  co-equal 
partners,  with  certain  immunities  on  the  side  of  the 
wife  and  certain  liabilities  on  the  side  of  the  hus- 
band. She  can  sequester  all  of  her  property  and 
claim  complete  support  from  her  husband  for  herself 
and  her  children.  Within  the  period  from  i860  to 
1878,  under  this  regime,  in  Massachusetts  marriages 
increased  only  four  per  cent.,  divorces  more  than 
one  hundred  per  cent.,  and   population  forty-five  per 

18  Maine,  op.  cit.,  chap.  vii. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  MARRIAGE.  151 

cent.,  showing  that  marriages  are  relatively  decreas- 
ing and  divorces  increasing  at  an  enormous  rate. 
The  new  laws  have  been  associated  with  new  indus- 
trial employments  for  women.  In  1840  only  seven 
occupations  were  open  to  women.  In  1883  there  were 
nearly  three  hundred.17  Connected  with  these  legal 
and  industrial  changes  are  the  boarding-house  life, 
the  factory-girl  slavery,  and  the  shop-girl  bondage  of 
our  decade,  with  their  temptations  and  hardships. 
Marriage  tends  to  be  regarded  as  a  sexual  partner- 
ship, to  which  the  home  is  unnecessary,  children  are 
an  impediment,  and  divorce  is  a  frequent  termination. 
Professor  Ely  reports  that  in  a  single  New  England 
factory-town  of  thirty  thousand  inhabitants,  he  found 
two  hundred  couples  living  together  outside  the  bonds 
of  wedlock.  For  all  these  evils,  only  too  real  and  too 
serious,  connected  with  a  practical  Malthusianism, 
involving  both  vice  and  crime,  Christianity  has  a 
remedy.  It  is  the  old  one  offered  by  Paul :  "  Let  the 
younger  women  marry,  bear  children,  guide  the 
house." 

3.  The  spirit  of  our  times  favors  the  further 
"  emancipation  "  of  woman,  but  it  is  well  to  be  sure 
in  what  her  true  emancipation  consists  before  giving 
reinforcement  to  the  ranks  of  the  radicals.  The 
next  stadium  in  the  proposed  programme  of  progress 
is  the  legal  establishment  of  woman's  political  per- 
sonality. I  do  not  see  how  it  can  be  logically  with- 
held from  unmarried  women  who  have  reached  the 
years    of    majority   and    are    self-supporting.       The 

17  The  Married  Woman's  Statutes,  by  Jonathan  Smith,  p.  10. 


152       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

reason  for  withholding  suffrage  does  not  lie  in  sex, 
but  in  the  family.  The  Christian  idea  of  marriage 
precludes  the  universal  suffrage  of  women.  A  fam- 
ily is  normally  represented  through  its  responsible 
head.  That  head,  according  to  the  Christian  as  well 
as  the  historic  conception,  is  the  husband  and  father. 
If  the  wife  is  clothed  with  political  power,  she  has 
every  right  with  her  husband.  She  must  then  bear 
the  burden  equally  of  every  duty.  This  involves  a 
divided  responsibility  for  the  wellbeing  of  the  family. 
She  must  use  her  property  for  the  support  of  herself, 
her  children,  and  her  husband,  as  he  now  must  use 
his.  It  is  but  simple  justice.  Most  married  women 
will  prefer  their  present  condition  to  this  double 
headship.  To  invest  wives  with  political  sovereignty 
is  to  divide  the  household  and  to  introduce  into  the 
married  state  a  new  cause  of  disputation  and  disrup- 
tion. It  destroys  that  unity  which  is  the  first  essen- 
tial to  an  ideal  family  life. 

4.  There  remains  but  little  time  in  which  to  speak 
of  the  dissolution  of  marriage.  It  is  the  less  neces- 
sary in  this  presence,  because  the  Christian  doctrine 
on  that  subject  has  been  admirably  expounded  in  the 
lucid  and  conclusive  little  volume  by  President 
Hovey  on  "The  Scripture  Law  of  Divorce."  There 
is  but  one  cause  for  which  the  dissolution  of  the  mar- 
riage bond  can  be  granted,  according  to  the  law  of 
Christ.  Separation,  temporary  or  permanent,  how- 
ever, is  a  proper  alternative  to  continued  marital  rela- 
tions when  the  ends  of  human  existence  cannot 
otherwise  be  attained.       The    Christian   Church    is 


CHRIS  TIANIT  Y  AND  MARRIA  GE.  153 

bound  absolutely  by  this  high  ideal  and  it  is  the 
duty  of  all  men  to  aim  at  its  realization.  As  Dr. 
Hovey  says  :  "  Civil  governments  sometimes  find  it 
impracticable  to  make  their  laws  touching  divorce 
agree  precisely  with  the  divine  law.  The  wickedness 
of  the  people  may  forbid  this.  Yet  the  more  nearly 
those  laws  can  be  brought  to  the  evangelical  stand- 
ard, and  properly  executed,  the  more  useful  will  they 
be  to  the  people.  And  it  is  difficult  to  overestimate 
the  educational  power  of  civil  laws,  and  the  impor- 
tance of  bringing  them  into  perfect  accord  with  the 
true  principles  of  morality."18  It  is  good  legal 
ground  that  the  nature  of  wedlock  implies  its  per- 
petuity for  life,  and  this  is  always  assumed  by  at 
least  one  of  the  contracting  parties.  "  Eternity," 
says  Dr.  Paul  Janet,  "  so  truly  enters  into  the  nature 
of  love,  that  love  would  not  venture  to  ask  anything, 
or  to  grant  anything  without  promising  eternity.  Its 
first  acts  are  always  oaths  of  fidelity  without  end, 
and  even  when  it  practises  deception,  it  is  obliged  to 
use  feigned  words,  or  it  would  obtain  nothing.  It  is 
urged  that  the  heart  has  rights,  and  that  vows  of 
eternity  are  impossible.  I  acknowledge  that  love  has 
rights  for  the  forming  of  the  conjugal  union,  but  it 
has  none  for  dissolving  it.  To  the  principle  of  the 
heart's  liberty  we  must  oppose  that  of  the  heart's 
fidelity ;  and  herein  we  assign  to  it  an  office  more 
beautiful,  and  a  glory  more  pure,  than  if  we  claimed 
for  it  the  privilege  of  giving  itself  up  to  chance  and 
of  changing   its  office  without   ceasing.       I    confess 

I8  The  Scriptural  Doctrine  of  Divorce,  by  Alvah  Hovey,  D.D.,  pp.  72,  73. 


154       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

that  to  require  of  the  heart  an  attachment  which 
cannot  be  given  up  demands  grave  reasons.  I  dis- 
cern two  such  reasons,  which  appear  to  me  to  be 
irrefutable  :  the  dignity  of  the  wife  and  the  interest 
of  the  children."  10 

111  Janet,  La  Famille,  pp.  300,  303. 


VI. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE   PROBLEMS 
OF   EDUCATION. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE   PROBLEMS  OF 
EDUCATION. 


I.    EDUCATION   AS   A   SOCIAL   FUNCTION, 
i .    Unconscious  and  Conscious  Education. 

2.  Oriental  Education. 

3.  Classical  Education. 


II.    CHRISTIANITY   AS   AN   EDUCATING   POWER. 

1.  The  Christian  Conception  of  Education. 

2.  The  Historic  Influence  of  Christianity. 

3.  The  Cultural  Breadth  of  Christianity. 

4.  The  Triumphs  of  Christian  Culture. 

5.  Commenius  and  Milton. 


III.    CHRISTIANITY 


f- 


AND    CONTEMPORARY 
TION. 


EDUCA- 


1.  Sciolism  in  Pedagogics. 

2.  The  Attack  on  Religion  in  the  Schools. 

3.  The  Relation  of  Christianity  to  our  Schools. 

J  (1)  Ours  a  Christian  Nation. 

1  (2)  Our  Higher  Education  Christian. 

(3)  The  Theorists  Commend  Religion  in  Education. 

4.  The  Secularization  of  the  Schools. 

5.  The  Cause  of  this  Secularization. 

6.  Conclusions  : 

(1)  The  State  cannot  impart  a  Complete  Education. 

(2)  The  Family  and  the  Church  must  complete  Edu- 

cation. 

(3)  Christian  Teachers  must  do  their  Duty. 


VI. 

CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    PROBLEMS   OF 
EDUCATION. 

I. 

i.  The  unfolding  of  a  human  being,  like  the  growth 
of  a  plant,  depends  largely  upon  its  surroundings. 
What  soil,  air,  and  sunshine  are  to  the  plant,  family 
influence,  social  customs,  and  public  opinion  are  to 
the  child.  Long  before  conscious  purposes  of  human 
development  were  formed  education  existed  ;  for  the 
imitative  instinct  in  the  presence  of  unreflecting  ex- 
ample is  sufficient  to  call  into  action  many  of  the 
human  faculties.  A  continuity  of  life  runs  through 
all  human  history  and  our  education  began  before 
we  were  born.  The  principle  of  heredity  extends 
not  only  to  organic  descent,  but  also  to  intellectual 
and  moral  development.  Language,  literature,  law, 
and  science  constitute  a  veritable  inheritance.  Each 
generation  may  begin  where  its  predecessor  ended, 
but  only  on  the  condition  of  some  organizing  effort 
to  acquaint  the  young  with  the  history  and  acquisi- 
tions of  the  past.  This,  however,  even  very  crude 
peoples  undertake  and  accomplish.  Ideals  of  human 
life,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  are  formed  in  the 
mind,  and  these  become  the  educational  types  of  dif- 
ferent ages  and  nations.     At  last  they  are  gathered 


I58       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

in  a  conscious  purpose.  Institutions  are  then  created 
to  mold  the  young  after  these  ideals,  and  thus  edu- 
cation comes  to  be  a  social  function. 

To  educate  a  child  is  to  enable  it  to  fulfil  its  life- 
plan  and  realize  its  destiny.  Organized  educational 
work  involves  the  clear  conception  of  an  end  to  be 
attained,  the  conscious  apprehension  in  clear-cut  form 
of  the  child's  nature  and  future.  Every  people  ad- 
vanced beyond  the  rudimentary  condition  of  savagery 
has  such  an  idea  of  the  end  to  which  education  fur- 
nishes the  means.  "  The  national  education,"  says 
Dr.  Barnard,  "  is  at  once  a  cause  and  an  effect  of  the 
national  character ;  and  accordingly  the  history  of 
education  affords  the  only  ready  and  perfect  key  to 
the  history  of  the  human  race  and  of  each  nation  in 
it  —  an  unfailing  standard  for  estimating  its  advance 
or  retreat  upon  the  line  of  human  progress."  1 

2.  Among  the  oriental  nations  the  individual  counts 
for  nothing.  His  destination  is  a  place  in  a  complex, 
stationary,  and  completed  social  framework,  and  his 
education  is  shaped  with  the  end  of  adjusting  him  to 
his  place.  In  China  the  mind  looks  backward,  never 
forward,  and  the  type  of  culture  may  be  called  ances- 
tral. Every  human  being  is  taught  to  be  like  his 
fathers,  to  reverence  them  as  deities,  and  all  personal 
spontaneity  is  rigorously  repressed.  The  caste  disci- 
pline of  India  is  similar  in  its  retrospective  tendency, 
training  every  child,  according  to  the  one  of  the  four 
castes  to  which  he  belongs  by  birth,  to  take  the  place 
of  his  forefathers.     Persian  education  is   built  upon 

1  Quoted  in  Painter's  History  of  Education,  introduction. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EDUCATION.  159 

the  stability  of  the  State,  and  service  to  the  sovereign 
is  the  end  of  all  endeavor.  The  ancient  Hebrews 
molded  the  young  upon  a  theocratic  pattern  more 
elevated  and  noble  than  any  other  oriental  concep- 
tion, shaping  the  entire  life  for  service  to  God,  and 
thus  placing  the  moral  development  above  the  intel- 
lectual. 

3.  The  classical  nations  of  antiquity  regarded  the 
State  as  the  end  of  existence,  the  individual  as  the 
means  of  its  strength  and  perpetuity.  They  differed 
from  the  oriental  peoples  in  conceiving  the  high 
development  of  the  individual  as  a  desirable  object, 
but  only  as  subsidiary  to  the  ulterior  purpose  of 
glorifying  public  life.  The  Greek  and  Roman  theo- 
ries of  education  —  the  martial  training  of  Lycurgus, 
the  aesthetic  culture  of  Pythagoras,  the  dialectic  prac- 
tice of  the  Sophists,  the  philosophic  politics  of  Cicero, 
and  the  rhetorical  system  of  Ouintilian  —  all  contem- 
plate the  preparation  of  the  few  for  whom  these 
phases  of  education  were  designed  for  the  public 
duties  of  citizenship.  Nowhere  in  antiquity,  nowhere 
outside  of  Christendom,  do  we  find  the  full  and  har- 
monious development  of  man  for  his  own  sake  re- 
garded as  the  end  of  education. 

II. 

1.  With  the  advent  of  Christianity  a  new  concep- 
tion entered  the  minds  of  men.  It  was  not  dis- 
tinctly formulated  either  by  the  Founder  of  Chris- 
tianity himself  or  by  any  of  his  chosen  apostles, 
but  its  germ  was  latent   in  the    new  idea   of   man. 


l6o      SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

"Be  ye  perfect,"  said  Jesus,  "even  as  your  Father 
in  heaven  is  perfect."  At  first  this  perfection  was 
understood  as  a  moral  perfection,  a  growth  in  right- 
eousness. But  reflection  has  developed  this  new 
idea  into  a  vastly  broader  and  more  symmetrical  one. 
It  was  much  to  conceive  of  man  as  capable  of  any 
form  of  perfection  and  to  place  this  before  him  as 
a  goal  to  be  attained  by  every  individual.  Holiness 
is  wholeness.  Slowly  but  logically  the  conception 
has  grown  into  the  modern  Christian  ideal  of  edu- 
cation. Not  only  moral  character  but  intellectual 
power  belongs  to  that  Being  in  whose  image  man 
is  created.  The  realization  of  man's  complete 
nature  as  the  image  of  God  involves  his  growth  of 
mind,  his  perception  of  plan  and  wisdom  in  the 
creation  of  the  world.  Each  day  should  add  some 
new  lesson  in  the  divine  tuition.  As  a  son  of  God, 
study  becomes  to  him  a  part  of  worship.  "  To 
know,  in  order  to  be,"  is  the  new  maxim  of  Christian 
faith. 

2.  We  must  not  forget,  however,  that  this  now 
familiar  contemporary  idea  is  recent  and  has  a  his- 
tory that  has  led  to  doubt  concerning  the  attitude 
of  Christianity  toward  certain  forms  of  culture.  In 
the  early  centuries  of  the  era  which  it  has  created, 
Christianity  claimed  no  alliance  with  the  intellectual 
forces  of  the  world  and  introduced  no  scientific 
renaissance.  Its  primary  work  was  moral  and  spirit- 
ual, and  this  required  other  instruments  than  mental 
culture.  Its  next  task  was  the  humanizing  of  the 
Northern  barbarians,  whose  multitudes  were  brought 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   EDUCATION.  I  6  I 

to  the  standard  of  the  cross  by  moral  object-lessons 
rather  than  by  a  scientific  process.  The  time  was 
not  ripe  for  the  unfolding  of  those  resources  of 
knowledge  that  lay  concealed,  awaiting  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  nations  for  their  discovery  and  utilization. 
The  first  need  of  the  world  was  a  moral  regeneration. 
This  Christianity  gave.  The  next  was  the  refining 
and  civilizing  of  the  Northern  races.  This  also 
Christianity  supplied  amid  the  ruins  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  It  did  it  through  those  schools,  now 
scoffed  at  as  barren  and  unproductive,  in  which  the 
intellect  of  Europe  was  drilled  in  the  processes  of 
dialectic,  and  rendered  capable  of  logical  analysis. 
It  was  a  needed  schooling,  the  only  one  the  age 
could  bear.  Then  followed  the  training  in  the  old 
humanities,  the  opening  and  exposition  of  the 
ancient  classics,  lost  books  to  the  lands  that  pro- 
duced them,  new  books  to  the  races  of  the  North, 
at  the  period  of  the  revival  of  letters.  Finally, 
the  trained  and  sharpened  intellect  was  turned 
toward  nature,  whose  great  banquet  board  of  truth 
lay  all  untouched,  ready  for  the  eager  appetite.  The 
modern  sciences  became  the  food  of  the  robust 
mind,  made  powerful  and  agile  in  the  palaestra  of 
scholasticism.  "The  past,"  says  Emerson,  in  rebuke 
of  the  modern  scoffers,  "has  baked  your  loaf,  and 
in  the  strength  of  its  bread  you  would  break  up  the 
oven."  "  Not  a  man  in  Europe  now,"  as  John 
Henry  Newman  reminds  us,  and  he  might  have  said 
in  America  also,  "who  talks  bravely  against  the 
Church,  but  owes  it  to  the  Church,  that  he  can  talk 
at  all." 


1 62       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

There  are  two  co-equal  elements  in  true  human 
education  :  discipline  and  instruction.  Christianity- 
has  neglected  neither.  The  first  requisite  in  every 
person's  training  is  moral  discipline.  That  was  Chris- 
tianity's first  gift  to  the  world.  It  trained  men  to 
reverence  and  love  truth,  to  suffer  for  it,  to  die  for 
it.  The  next  need  is  power  of  analysis.  This  was 
given  in  the  much-abused  scholasticism.  The  rude 
nations  of  the  North  had  known  nothing  like  it.  It 
was  to  them  what  a  problem  in  algebra  is  to  a 
modern  plowboy,  a  lesson  of  priceless  value,  though 
the  answer  itself  may  be  unimportant.  Then  comes 
the  need  of  information.  The  past  rose  up  to 
instruct  men  through  the  lips  of  Homer  and  Plato, 
Cicero  and  Caesar.  But  the  present  also  required  a 
voice.  The  past  supplied  a  language.  Astrology 
becomes  astronomy,  alchemy  becomes  chemistry, 
geology  and  biology  and  the  other  newborn  sciences 
appear.  What  are  they,  all  of  them,  but  the  facts 
of  nature  poured  into  the  molds  of  logic  which 
scholasticism  had  prepared ;  their  very  names,  the 
"  ologies,"  signifying  the  special  logics  ? 

3.  It  cannot  be  truly  said  that  Christianity  has 
been  the  foe  of  knowledge.2     It  has  preserved  what 

2  Those  who  have  read  Draper's  History  of  the  Conflict  between  Religion 
and  Science  may  feel  disposed  to  question  this  statement.  It  should  be  re- 
membered that  I  use  "Christianity"  as  a  synonym  with  "  the  influence  of 
Jesus,"  not  as  equivalent  to  the  historical  Church.  The  spirit  of  Jesus  is  ex- 
pressed in  his  words  :  "  Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make 
you  free  "  ( John  8  :  32) .  While  Christians  have  not  always  welcomed  truth 
which  seemed  to  them  contradictory  of  truth  already  accepted,  and,  therefore, 
falsehood,  the  spirit  of  Christ,  whenever  it  has  really  moved  men  to  know 
the  truth,  and  has  broadened  their  minds   sufficiently  to   receive   it,  has 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EDUCATION.  163 

antiquity  possessed,  and  prepared  for  and  incited  to 
what  the  present  has  discovered.  It  must  be  admit- 
ted, however,  that  it  places  moral  before  intellectual 
development,  but  who  that  reflects  will  not  ?  "  Seek 
ye  first  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  said  our  Lord,  but 
immediately  added,  "  and  all  these  things  "  —  the 
necessities  of  human  life  on  its  loftiest  as  well  as 
on  its  lowest  plane  —  "shall  be  added  unto  you." 
Asceticism,  it  is  true,  was  abnormally  developed  in 
the  early  Church.  It  cultivated  a  spirit  of  "  other- 
worldliness,"  as  George  Eliot  calls  it,  repressing  the 
body  and  its  pleasures,  and  creating  a  hatred  of  the 
world.  Such  was  not  the  spirit  of  Jesus  or  his 
immediate  disciples.  They  overcame  the  world, 
indeed,  but  not  by  destroying  it.  Their  triumph 
was  a  moral  victory,  not  a  physical  extinction. 
Christ  came  eating  and  drinking  ;  he  sought  the  com- 
panionship of  men ;  he  honored  marriage  and  main- 
tained the  sacredness  of  family  life ;  he  blessed  the 
little  children,  and  taught  his  disciples  to  trace  the 
presence  of  God  in  nature  ;  he  prayed  in  his  last 
recorded  petition  for  his   own,  not   that   they  might 

opened  their  sympathies  for  real  knowledge  of  all  kinds.  As  a  distin- 
guished student  and  teacher  of  history  has  said  in  a  valuable  work  on  this 
subject.  "The  work  of  Christianity  has  been  mighty  indeed.  Through 
these  two  thousand  years,  despite  the  waste  of  its  energies  on  all  the  things 
its  blessed  Founder  most  earnestly  condemned,  —  on  fetich  and  subtlety  and 
war  and  pomp, —it  has  undermined  servitude,  mitigated  tyranny,  given 
hope  to  the  hopeless,  comfort  to  the  afflicted,  light  to  the  blind,  bread  to  the 
starving,  joy  to  the  dying,  and  this  work  continues.  And  its  work  for 
science,  too,  has  been  great.  It  has  fostered  science  often.  Nay,  it  has 
nourished  that  feeling  of  self-sacrifice  for  human  good,  which  has  nerved 
some  of  the  bravest  men  for  these  battles."  —  The  Warfare  of  Science,  by 
Andrew  D.  White,  ll.D. 


164       SOCIAL    INFLUENCE    OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

be  taken  out  of  the  world,  but  that  they  might  be 
kept  from  the  evil.  If  Tertullian  and  Chrysostom 
and  Jerome  condemned  all  intercourse  with  the 
world  and  all  seeking  after  natural  knowledge, 
others,  as  Basil,  for  example,  warmly  commended 
culture.  "We  ought  to  be  armed  with  every  re- 
source, and  to  this  end  the  reading  of  poets,  histo- 
rians, and  orators  is  very  useful,"  says  Basil.3 
Charlemagne  wisely  wrote  :  "  Although  it  is  better 
to  do  than  to  know,  yet  it  is  necessary  to  know,  in 
order  to  be  able  to  do.  .  .  .  Hence  we  admonish  you 
not  to  neglect  the  study  of  the  sciences." 4 
Throughout  the  history  of  our  era  we  trace  the 
affinity  of  the  Christianized  mind  for  every  noble 
form  of  knowledge ;  and  yet  it  must  be  confessed 
that  Christianity  everywhere  gives  the  first  place  to 
personal  righteousness. 

4.  If  the  perfection  of  the  Christian  idea  of  educa- 
tion seems  the  result  of  a  slow  development,  it  forms 
no  exception  to  the  general  law  of  growth.  Christian- 
ity has  had  to  deal  with  men  as  it  found  them.  It 
has  converted  pagans  into  Christians,  barbarians  into 
scholars,  dialecticians  into  scientists.  If  an  ecclesias- 
tical hierarchy  at  Rome  has  impeded  rather  than 
advanced  the  progress  of  human  knowledge,  it  is  not 
because  it  has  been  fettered  by  any  doctrines  of 
Christ,  but  because  it  has  been  governed  by  a  self- 
centred  conservatism.  The  "  Holy  Roman  Empire  " 
was  as  distinctly  a  human  creation  as  the  Empire  of 

3  Quoted  by  Painter,  op.  cit.  p.  99. 

4  Quoted  by  Painter,  op.  cit.  p.  105. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EDUCATION.  I  65 

the  Caesars.  Papal  obstructiveness  to  scientific  pro- 
gress has  been  a  purely  strategic  policy  prompted  by 
the  instinct  of  self-preservation.  It  has  ignomin- 
iously  failed,  though  Christianity  itself  has  triumphed. 
Of  all  the  intellectual  influences  that  have  ever 
appeared  in  history,  Christianity  alone  has  matured 
its  fruit.  Arabian  learning  was,  indeed,  brilliant,  but 
proved  short-lived.  It  lacked  the  element  of  intellec- 
tual vitality — -consecration  to  truth.  It  appealed  to 
the  sword  instead  of  to  the  soul  of  man,  and  perished 
by  the  sword  it  had  unsheathed.  Romanism  has 
proved  retrogressive  and  incapable  of  leading  civiliza- 
tion, because  it  has  been  wanting  in  faith.  Professing 
exclusive  authority  from  God,  it  has  feared  to  trust 
the  reason  and  conscience  which  God  placed  in  man 
for  the  study  of  God's  world.  Its  last  and  losing 
battle  has  been  in  the  struggle  to  confine  the  mind  to 
the  study  of  those  "humanities  "  which  in  the  begin- 
ning it  treated  with  distrust,  the  classic  writings  of 
paganism.  It  has  resisted  that  naturalism  which 
prompted  the  scientific  movement  and  pervades  the 
intellectual  training  of  to-day.  It  has  staked  all  on 
the  ridiculous  tenet  that  heathen  classics  are  more 
compatible  with  Christian  faith  and  life  than  com- 
munion with  God's  works  in  the  realm  of  nature. 
Even  Protestantism  has  but  slowly  and  reluctantly 
broken  from  the  chain  of  tradition  that  held  men  to 
merely  verbal  study  ;  but,  following  its  better  lights, 
it  has  cast  the  chain  aside,  and  the  investigation  of 
nature  is  now  led,  as  it  should  be,  by  Christian  men. 
5.   It  was  the  gentle  pastor   Commenius   who,  in 


1 66       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

the  seventeenth  century,  put  in  final  phrase  the 
Christian  ideal  of  education.  "Education,"  he  says, 
"is  a  development  of  the  whole  man."  A  Christian 
poet,  John  Milton,  in  the  same  age,  phrased  the 
doctrine  thus  :  "  The  end,  then,  of  learning  is  to 
repair  the  ruins  of  our  first  parents  by  regaining  to 
know  God  aright,  and  out  of  that  knowledge  to  love 
him,  to  imitate  him,  to  be  like  him,  as  we  may  the 
nearest  by  possessing  our  souls  of  virtue,  which,  being 
united  to  the  heavenly  grace  of  faith,  makes  up  the 
highest  perfection.  But  because  our  understanding 
cannot  in  this  body  found  itself  but  on  sensible 
things,  nor  arrive  so  clearly  to  the  knowledge  of  God 
and  things  invisible,  as  by  orderly  conning  over  the 
visible  and  inferior  creature,  the  same  method  is 
necessarily  to  be  followed  in  all  discreet  teaching. 
And  seeing  every  nation  affords  not  experience  and 
tradition  enough  for  all  kinds  of  learning,  therefore 
we  are  chiefly  taught  the  languages  of  those  people 
who  have  at  any  time  been  most  industrious  after 
wisdom  ;  so  that  language  is  but  the  instrument  con- 
veying to  us  things  useful  to  be  known.  And  though 
a  linguist  should  pride  himself  to  have  all  the  tongues 
that  Babel  cleft  the  world  into,  yet  if  he  have  not 
studied  the  solid  things  themselves,  as  well  as  the 
words  and  lexicons,  he  were  nothing  so  much  to  be 
esteemed  a  learned  man  as  any  yeoman  or  tradesman 
competently  wise  in  his  mother  dialect  only."  5  This 
remarkable  passage  at  once  sets  forth,  in  its  quaint 
fashion,  both  the  end  and  the  method  of   true  educa- 

0  Milton's  Tractate  on  Education. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EDUCATION.  \6j 

tion,  acknowledging  the  equal  claims  of  the  humani- 
ties and  the  sciences  ;  and  may  be  regarded  as  the 
most  succinct  and  satisfactory  judgment  that  has  yet 
been  uttered  on  the  philosophy  of  human  development. 

III. 

i.  We  are  living  in  a  time  when  the  abstract  idea 
of  education  exercises  more  influence  over  the  minds 
of  men  than  it  has  ever  exercised  before  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  Ours  is  an  age  in  which  faith 
in  dynamic  agencies  is  boundless.  "  Change,"  "  Pro- 
gress," "  Evolution,"  are  the  watchwords  of  the  hour. 
And  yet  a  thoughtful  investigator  discovers  more 
doubt,  antagonism,  and  contradiction  among  educa- 
tional theorists  and  their  disciples  among  teachers 
than  any  other  age  reveals.  Ends,  means,  and  meth- 
ods the  most  opposite  are  lauded  and  applied,  some- 
times as  new  and  final  discoveries,  and  almost  always 
in  the  name  of  "science."  It  is  an  age  of  sciolists. 
As  soon  as  anything  calls  itself  a  "science,"  it  has 
authority.  The  mind  of  the  moderns  has  a  special 
reverence  for  the  "  practical  "  also.  But  the  sphere 
of  practice  is  very  dimly  outlined.  Chemistry,  for 
example,  is  usually  praised  as  a  "practical"  study 
and  moral  philosophy  is  regarded  as  less  "practical ; " 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  there  are  but  few 
instances  in  the  life  of  the  average  man  when  a  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  chemical  science  is  strictly  neces- 
sary, while  moral  conduct,  as  Matthew  Arnold  says, 
"  is  three  fourths  of  life."  It  is  regarded  "  practical  " 
to  name  all  the  bones  in  the  human  body,  while  the 


1 68       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

study  of  an  oration  of  Cicero's  would  not  be  so 
esteemed  ;  and  yet  one  is  called  upon  to  make  a 
speech  more  often  than  to  give  the  scientific  name  of 
any  anatomical  part. 

2.  A  schoolbook  on  science  is  considered  obsolete 
if  it  does  not  contain  last  year's  discoveries  ;  and  yet 
precepts  and  doctrines  that  have  been  slowly  verified 
in  the  experience  of  centuries  are  arbitrarily  excluded 
from  our  schoolrooms.  It  is  generally  admitted  that 
the  principles  of  Christianity  have  led  the  world's 
advancement,  and  yet  it  would  be  hazardous  for  the 
author  of  a  textbook  designed  for  our  public  schools 
to  say  so.  The  principle  governing  the  first  grant  of 
public  lands  for  purposes  of  education,  in  1785,  was 
stated  :  "  Religion,  morality,  and  knowledge  being 
necessary  to  good  government  and  the  happiness  of 
mankind,  schools  and  the  means  of  education  shall  be 
forever  encouraged."6  See  what  a  change  a  century 
has  made.  "  That  is  my  '  Political  Economy,'  said  a 
Christian  college  president,  "prepared  for  high- 
schools  and  colleges.  I  sent  it  the  other  day  to  one 
of  our  state  superintendents  of  education  ;  but  it  was 
returned  to  me  with  the  note  that  its  first  sentence 
condemned  it  for  use  in  public  schools."  That  first 
sentence  was :  "  The  source  of  all  wealth  is  the 
beneficence  of  God."7  A  series  of  geographies, 
accurate  in  details,  revised  to  date,  and  beautifully 
printed,  was  rejected  by  the  school  board  of  Chicago 

u  Quoted  by  Painter,  op.  cit.  p.  316. 

7  This  case  and  the  following  one  are  reported  by  the  late  A.  A.  Hodge, 
D.D.,  in  the  New  Princeton  Review  for  January,  1887,  p.  29. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EDUCATION.  1 69 

after  having  been  in  use  a  year,  because  these  books 
recognized  the  existence  of  God.  It  was  only  ten  years 
ago  that  Dr.  Woolsey  wrote,  in  his  Political  Science : 
"  We  have  not  yet  quite  reached  the  extreme  that  the 
teacher  must  never  mention  God  to  children's  ears, 
but  it  must  logically  come,  if  modern  unbelief  is  to 
have  the  career  that  many  look  for."8  The  logic 
of  events  has  confirmed  the  logic  of  this  unwelcome 
prediction,  and  in  less  than  a  decade  it  has  been 
fulfilled. 

3.  This  change  has  come  about,  notwithstanding 
three  considerations,  which  separately,  but  much  more 
together,  ought  to  have  rendered  it  impossible  :  (1) 
ours  is  a  Christian  nation  ;  (2)  the  superior  education 
of  this  country  has  been  chiefly  in  the  hands  of 
Christian  teachers,  in  schools  founded  by  Christian 
men,  with  an  increasing  percentage  of  Christian 
students  ;  and  (3)  the  general  opinion  of  educational 
philosophers  is  that  morality  and  religion  are  desirable 
and  necessary  elements  in  human  education. 

(1)  Justice  Shea  maintains  that  while  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  does  not  formally  recognize 
the  existence  of  God  or  set  forth  any  legislative  pro- 
fession of  faith,  "its  entire  context  and  the  laws  in 
pursuance  thereof,  like  the  form  of  that  more  ancient 
Saxon  government  upon  which  ours  was  molded, 
declare,  with  approved  wisdom  and  decorum,  by 
necessary  presupposition  and  inference,  that  the 
tenets  of  the  Christian  religion  lie  at  the  foundations 

8  Woolsey's  Political  Science,  vol.  ii,  p.  414. 


I/O 


SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


of  the  government  and  are  to  protect  and  regulate  its 
operations."  9 

Daniel  Webster,  in  interpreting  the  national  Con- 
stitution, says  :  "  There  is  nothing  we  look  for  with 
more  certainty  than  the  principle  that  Christianity  is 
a  part  of  the  law  of  the  land  —  general,  tolerant 
Christianity,  independent  of  sects  and  parties."  10  Kent 
and  Story  have  held  the  same  doctrine  and  the  courts 
have  repeatedly  embodied  the  principle.  And  yet 
a  nation  whose  Constitution  was  devised  by  men  who, 
at  Franklin's  suggestion,  began  their  deliberations 
with  prayer  to  God ;  the  session  of  whose  national 
Congress  is  opened  regularly  with  prayer;  whose 
armies  and  navies  are  provided  with  Christian  chap- 
lains paid  from  the  public  treasury  to  conduct  religious 
exercises  ;  whose  magistrates  are  sworn  into  office  in 
the  name  and  presence  of  Gocl,  and  by  kissing  the 
Book  the  sanctity  of  which  seals  the  solemnity  of  the 
oath,  and  whose  judicial  action  is  based  on  the 
validity  of  sworn  testimony,  —  such  a  nation  has  in 
public  office  men  who  reject  schoolbooks  because 
they  contain  the  name  of  God,  and  carefully  guard  the 
future  citizen  from  all  mention  and  knowledge  of  the 
Being  in  whose  name  the  most  solemn  acts  of  citizen- 
ship are  by  law  required  to  be  performed. 

(2)  Not  only  is  this  a  Christian  nation  in  its  tradi- 
tions and  legal  implications,  but  in  its  essence  and 
development.     That     the     nation    was    founded    by 

9  George  Shea's  The  Nature  and  Form  of  the  American   Government 
Founded  in  the  Christian  Religion,  p.  13. 
ln  Quoted  by  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge,  loe.  cit. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EDUCATION.  171 

Christian  men  does  not  need  even  to  be  asserted. 
The  growth  of  Christianity  in  the  United  States 
from  1800  to  1880  exceeded  its  growth  in  the  entire 
world  during  the  first  eight  centuries  after  Christ, 
although  it  was  accepted  as  a  state  religion  by  the 
Roman  Empire  in  the  fourth  century  of  its  era. 
Notwithstanding:  the  enormous  addition  of  hetero- 
geneous  and  non-Christian  elements  by  immigration, 
excluding  now  the  Roman  Catholic  growth,  the 
relative  increase  of  evangelical  Christians  alone  is 
something  impressive.  According  to  Dr.  Dorchester, 
in  the  eighty  years  from  the  beginning  of  our  century 
to  1880,  when  the  last  census  was  taken,  the  evangel- 
ical communicants  in  the  United  States  increased 
from  one  in  every  fifteen  to  one  in  every  five  inhabi- 
tants. The  increase  of  ministers  has  been  nearly  as 
rapid  and  that  of  church  organizations  even  more  rapid. 
In  these  eighty  years  the  evangelical  communicants 
have  increased  three  times  as  rapidly  as  the  entire 
population.  The  educational  work  shows  equally 
surprising  progress.  The  property  of  denominational 
colleges  was,  in  1880,  three  times  as  great  as  that  of 
all  non-denominational  colleges  together,  including 
those  founded  by  the  State.  Four  fifths  of  all  the 
collegiate  students  in  the  country,  in  1880,  were  in 
denominational  colleges.  The  increase  of  these  col- 
leges was  five  times  that  of  the  non-denominational. 
The  increase  of  students  in  them  was  more  than  five 
times  that  in  the  non-denominational.  While  popula- 
tion increased  fourfold,  denominational  colleges  and 
the  students  in  them  increased  nearly  eightfold,  or 


I  72 


SOCIAL    INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


nearly  twice  as  rapidly  as  population.11  And  yet 
it  is  considered  an  objection  to  a  textbook  for  use  in 
our  public  schools  if  it  contains  the  name  of  the  Deity. 
(3)  Now  let  us  pass  from  these  tedious  figures  to 
ask  if  the  authorities  on  the  science  of  education 
counsel  this  exclusion  of  religion.  I  take  down  from 
the  shelves  of  my  library  the  six  best  known  and  most 
reputable  works  on  education  in  my  possession  and 
quote  the  first  words  upon  which  my  eye  falls  relating 
to  the  subject.  First,  let  us  listen  to  Horace  Mann, 
who,  as  the  author  and  defender  of  the  public  school 
system  in  our  country,  is  entitled  to  be  heard.  He 
says:  "  Our  system  earnestly  inculcates  all  Christian 
morals ;  it  founds  its  morality  on  a  basis  of  religion ; 
it  welcomes  the  religion  of  the  Bible.  .  .  .  I  could  not 
avoid  regarding  the  man  who  should  oppose  the 
religious  education  of  the  young  as  an  insane  man."  12 
A  most  distinguished  French  writer,  Paroz,  says : 
"We  can  say  of  those  who  would  banish  Christ  from 
education  and  the  school  what  St.  Paul  said  of  the 
hostile  Jews,  that  they  are  the  enemies  of  the  human 
race."13  A  celebrated  German  authority,  Karl 
Schmidt,  in  speaking  of  the  doctrines  of  Jesus, 
writes  :  "This  is  absolute  truth,  doctrine  for  all  time, 
in  the  appropriation  and  realization  of  which  lies  the 
task  of  mankind."  l4     Another  German  writer,  Rosen- 

11  These  statistics  are  taken  from  Dr.  Daniel  Dorchester's  The  Problem 
of  Religious  Progress. 

12  Horace  Mann,"  On  Religious  Education,"  in  Massachusetts  Reports. 

13  Paroz,  Histoire  Universelle  de  la  Pedagogie. 

14  Schmidt,  Geschichte  der  Padagogik,  which  Painter  says  " is  probably 
the  ablest  work  that  has  yet  been  written  on  educational  history." 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   EDUCATION.  I  73 

kranz,  of  whose  book  it  has  been  said  that  "  it  alone 
justifies  its  philosophy  of  education  by  an  appeal  to 
psychology  and  history,"  assigns  to  religion  three 
educational  ends:  "  (1)  consecration;  (2)  the  initia- 
tion of  the  youth  into  the  forms  of  worship  as  found 
in  some  particular  religion,  and  (3)  his  reconciliation 
with  his  lot."15  If  it  be  thought  that  these  last  cita- 
tions express  foreign  rather  than  the  best  American 
ideas  upon  the  subject,  we  can  find  no  better  known 
authority  than  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  who  says:  "Faith 
is  a  secular  virtue  as  well  a  theological  virtue,  and 
whosoever  teaches  another  view  of  the  world  .  .  . 
teaches  a  doctrine  subversive  of  faith  in  this  peculiar 
sense,  and  also  subversive  of  man's  life  in  all  that 
makes  it  worth  living."  16  One  might  expect  to  find 
a  different  view  in  Herbert  Spencer's  work  on  "  Edu- 
cation," but  we  read  :  "The  discipline  of  science  is 
superior  to  that  of  our  ordinary  education,  because  of 
the  religious  culture  that  it  gives."  Is  Spencer  also 
among  the  prophets?  "Doubtless,"  he  adds,  "in 
much  of  the  science  that  is  current,  there  is  a  pervad- 
ing spirit  of  irreligion  ;  but  not  in  that  true  science, 
which  has  passed  beyond  the  superficial  into  the 
profound."  17  Then  follows  a  quotation  from  Professor 
Huxley,  too  excellent  and  pertinent  to  be  omitted : 
"  True  science  and  true  religion  are  twin-sisters,  and 
the  separation  of  either  from  the  other  is  sure  to 
prove  the  death  of  both.     Science  prospers  exactly  in 

is  Rosenkranz,  The  Philosophy  of  Education  (Brackett's  translation). 
*«  Quoted  by  Dr.  Hodge  from  the  Journal  of  Social  Science,  May,  1884. 
17  Spencer's  Education  :  Intellectual,  Moral,  and  Physical,  p.  90. 


174       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

proportion  as  it  is  religious  ;  and  religion  flourishes 
in  exact  proportion  to  the  scientific  depth  and  firm- 
ness of  its  basis.  The  great  deeds  of  philosophers 
have  been  less  the  fruit  of  their  intellect  than  of  the 
direction  of  that  intellect  by  an  eminently  religious 
tone  of  mind.  Truth  has  yielded  herself  rather  to 
their  patience,  their  love,  their  single-heartedness,  and 
their  self-denial,  than  to  their  logical  acumen."  18 

Is  it  not  something  anomalous  that  a  people  whose 
common  law  is  pervaded  with  Christianity,  among 
whom  voluntary  adhesion  to  that  faith  has  lately 
increased  beyond  all  precedent,  should  witness  among 
themselves  a  secularization  of  education  so  absolute 
as  to  drive  from  the  schools  that  religion  which  the 
greatest  authorities  on  the  training  of  the  mind  con- 
sider essential  to  its  completeness,  and  which  even 
the  most  radical  scientific  philosophers  of  our  age 
have  esteemed  as  a  twin-sister  of  science  itself  ?  Let 
us  first  correctly  apprehend  the  fact,  then  inquire  into 
its  cause,  and  if  possible  discover  a  method  of  final 
rectification. 

4.  "The  manifest  tendency  of  the  time,"  says 
Professor  Payne,  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  "  is 
toward  the  secularization  of  the  school.  The  modern 
State  has  become  an  educator  and  relegates  religious 
instruction  to  the  family  and  the  Church."  19  It  is  a 
"  tendency  "  rather  than  a  realized  condition,  of  which 


18  Quoted  by  Herbert  Spencer  immediately  after  the  sentence  just  quoted 
from  him. 

la  Payne's  Contributions  to  the  Science  of  Education,  Essay  on  The  Sec- 
ularization of  the  School. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   EDUCATION. 


*75 


this  writer  speaks,  but  it  is  one  of  rapid  growth.  In 
the  New  England  States  this  secularization  has  not 
proceeded  so  far  as  in  the  West.  In  Massachusetts 
the  daily  reading  of  a  portion  of  the  Bible  is  com- 
manded by  law,  but  there  is  a  "  conscience  clause  " 
for  objectors.  In  Ohio  the  Bible  is  excluded  from 
the  public  schools  under  a  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  In  Wisconsin  it  is  an  offence  punishable  with 
a  fine  for  a  teacher  to  give  any  religious  instruction 
in  the  public  schools.  In  the  high  school  of  Mil- 
waukee materialism  is  said  to  be  openly  taught.  In 
a  land  where  no  high  office  can  be  entered  upon  with- 
out a  solemn  oath  in  the  presence  of  God,  it  is  legal 
to  deny  that  he  governs  the  universe  or  even  has 
existence,  but  illegal  to  assert  the  reality  of  his 
being.  Could  Washington  have  dreamed  of  such  a 
state  of  public  opinion,  when  he  said  :  "Reason  and 
experience  both  forbid  us  to  expect  that  national 
morality  can  prevail  in  exclusion  of  religious  princi- 
ples "  ?  20 

5.  What  is  the  cause  of  the  growing  secularization 
of  the  schools  ?  It  is  not  any  incompatibility  of  our 
Constitution  with  Christianity,  it  is  not  the  decadence 
of  Christian  faith  or  the  relative  diminution  of 
Christians,  it  is  not  the  conclusion  of  high  authorities 
that  religion  is  detrimental  to  the  child.  All  this  has 
been  clearly  shown.  Nor  is  it  the  opposition  of 
Romanists  to  the  use  of  a  Protestant  version  of  the 
Bible.  A  prominent  Catholic  newspaper  condemns 
the  exclusion  of  the  Bible  from  the  public  schools  of 

20  Washington's  Farewell  Address. 


176       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


Cincinnati  and  adds:  "To  us  godless  schools  are  still 
less  acceptable  than  sectarian  schools,  and  we  object 
less  to  the  reading  of  King  James's  Bible,  even  in 
the  schools,  than  we  do  to  the  exclusion  of  all  reli- 
gious instruction.  Even  Protestantism  of  the  ortho- 
dox  stamp  is  far  less  evil  than  German  infidelity."  2l 
What  then  is  the  cause  of  this  growing  seculariza- 
tion ?  Professor  Payne  states  it  thus  :  "  Education 
has  become,  or  is  rapidly  becoming,  a  function  of  the 
State.  .  .  .  With  the  State  as  educator,  the  school 
becomes  a  civil  institution,  and  as  such  it  must 
abandon  religious  instruction,  which  must  be  rele- 
gated to  the  family  and  the  Church."  And  yet  he 
goes  on  to  say  that  "  the  public  school  must  teach 
morality,  because  morality  is  an  element  of  good  citi- 
zenship." Mr.  M.  J.  Savage  puts  the  case  very  vig- 
orously. He  says  :  "  The  State  has  no  right  to  set 
itself  up  as  a  life  insurance  organization  concerning 
eternity.  It  is  none  of  the  business  of  the  govern- 
ment whether  my  soul  goes  to  one  place  in  the  next 
world  or  the  other.  The  State  should  concern  itself 
as  to  how  I  behave  myself  as  a  citizen  of  this  world  ; 
and  there  its  jurisdiction  ends."  m  The  cause  of  the 
secularization  of  the  schools  seems  to  be  the  idea 
that  religion  is  no  part  of  the  State's  function.  We 
must  distinguish  between  recognition  and  affirmation. 
The  organic  law  of  our  nation  and  of  the  several 
states  recognizes  religion  and  offers  it  protection,  but 
does  not  affirm  it.     It  may,  therefore,  permit  religion 

21  The  New  York  Tablet,  quoted  by  Payne,  loc.  eit. 

--  Savage's  Social  Problems,  article  Common  School  Education. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EDUCATION. 


177 


to  be  taught,  but  cannot  teach  it.  The  State,  as  a 
state,  cannot  teach  religion,  because  teaching  involves 
a  choice  between  doctrines  which  the  State  is  not 
empowered  to  make.23 

6.  From  this  position  we  may  draw  three  conclu 
sions  :  (1)  The  State  cannot  impart  a  complete  edu- 
cation. If  the  Christian  conception  of  it  as  the 
development  of  the  whole  man  is  the  true  one,  an 
ideal  education  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the  State. 
The  State  has  no  theory  of  manhood,  only  one 
of  citizenship.  Even  this  has  been  crude  enough. 
It  has  given  us  a  system  of  public  schools  of  great 
value,  but  very  imperfectly  adapted  to  its  own  end  of 
producing  citizens.  The  industrial  side  of  develop- 
ment has  been  left  almost  entirely  out  of  sight.  The 
result  is  that  we  have  a  top-heavy  system  whose  fruits 
are  now  beginning  to  be  harvested  and  they  prove 
bitter  fruits.  The  old  system  of  apprenticeship  has 
passed  away.  We  have  millions  of  boys  with  the 
habits  and  tastes  of  school-boys  but  without  the  skill 
and  industry  of  self-supporting  workers.  Our  skilled 
workmen  have  to  be  imported.  The  learned  profes- 
sions are  overcrowded.  Clerks  and  small  traders 
crowd  one  another  in  a  destructive  competition.  The 
education  imparted  by  our  public  school  system   is 

23  It  is  certainly  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  our  national  Constitution  "  to  re- 
quire compulsory  support,  by  taxation  or  otherwise,  of  religious  instruction;" 
and,  as  Judge  Cooley  says  (Constitutional  Limitations), is  "  not  lawful  under 
any  of  the  American  constitutions."  But  it  is  equally  clear  that  the  exclu- 
sion of  a  book,  provided  it  cannot  be  proved  injurious,  or  of  a  teacher, 
provided  he  merely  expresses  his  own  views,  from  a  school  supported  by  the 
State,  on  account  of  a  religious  doctrine  which  is  not  sectarian,  is  a  religious 
persecution. 


178       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

literary  and  commercial.  It  often  unfits  its  recipients 
for  the  positions  open  to  them,  making  them  scorn 
the  labor  of  their  hands  and  seek  to  support  them- 
selves by  their  wits.  Such  education  simply  intensi- 
fies the  social  problem,  instead  of  solving  it.  It 
tends  to  produce  superficial  and  conceited  men  and 
women  instead  of  self-supporting  and  substantial 
members  of  society.  The  great  need  of  our  public 
school  system  is  the  introduction  of  industrialism 
into  its  programme  of  development.  The  State  cer- 
tainly has  an  interest  and  a  duty  in  educating  those 
who  cannot  be  otherwise  educated :  the  orphan,  the 
waif,  the  outcast,  the  pauper ;  it  may  be  expedient 
also  for  those  otherwise  circumstanced  to  be  intrusted 
to  the  public  schools,  but  the  whole  system  needs  to 
be  reconstructed  upon  a  true  conception  of  the  life 
of  citizens. 

(2)  The  completion  of  education  must  be  assumed 
by  the  family  and  the  Church.  This  division  and 
specialization  of  labor  is  not  out  of  harmony  with 
a  true  development  and  is  not  impracticable.  The 
incapacity  of  the  State  to  teach  religion  does  not 
disqualify  it  to  do  good  service  in  its  own  sphere  of 
secular  helpfulness.  As  Bishop  Harris  has  wisely 
said  :  "  If  the  facts  were  known  it  would  probably  be 
found  that  in  the  proper  work  of  the  school  there  is 
hardly  any  Christian  instruction  possible,  and  that 
what  is  given  could  be  better  and  more  efficiently 
given  by  the  pastor  and  the  parents,  in  the  Church 
and  in  the  home.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
Christianity  is  not  a  philosophy.     It  has  no  peculiar 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EDUCATION. 


179 


system  of  thought  or  summary  of  knowledge.  It 
does  not  profess  to  teach  a  peculiar  astronomy,  or 
geology,  or  cosmogony,  or  ontology,  however  mis- 
takenly or  persistently  such  a  claim  has  been  made 
for  it.  Nay,  it  is  now  well  seen  that  however  valu- 
able dogmas  and  creeds  are  and  shall  be,  yet  Chris- 
tianity is  not  merely  a  set  of  dogmas,  or  creed  of 
opinions,  but  is  a  faith,  a  life.  It  does  its  best  work, 
not  by  dogmatic  teaching,  not  by  propounding  theo- 
ries, but  by  touching  the  heart,  arousing  the  con- 
science, awakening  the  spirit  to  the  unseen  realities 
above  it  and  the  immortal  dignities  before  it  ;  by 
giving  to  the  disciple  love  to  be  the  moral  motive- 
power  of  his  life,  and  by  training  him  to  walk  with 
his  unseen  Guide  and  King.  And  this  it  does,  not 
necessarily  by  invading  the  schoolroom  and  inaugu- 
rating a  special  propagandism  there,  but  rather  by 
shedding  its  radiance  over  the  life  of  the  child,  by 
sanctifying  his  sabbaths,  by  the  sweet  and  gentle 
ministries  of  the  fireside  and  family  circle,  by  the 
simple  and  loving  methods  of  Christian  nurture  in 
the  Church,  the  Sunday-school,  the  home.  To  be 
a  Christian  does  not  depend  upon  the  amount  or  kind 
of  philosophy  or  scientific  knowledge  we  acquire, 
nor  upon  the  intellectual  training  and  discipline  we 
undergo  ;  but  it  depends  upon  the  power  of  our  faith, 
the  completeness  of  our  trust,  the  entireness  of  our 
self-surrender  to  the  guidance  of  Christ  and  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Let  the  home-training  of  the  child,  then,  be 
all  that  it  should  be ;  let  his  religious  discipline  be 
carefully  looked  after,  according  to  the  Church's  plan 


l8o      SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

.  .  .  and  the  question  of  religious  teaching  in  the 
school  will  become  comparatively  unimportant.  The 
real  trouble  is  the  neglect  of  religious  education  out 
of  the  school,  rather  than  within  it.  It  is  the  godless 
home  and  the  indifferent,  or  formal,  or  unspiritual 
Church,  rather  than  the  secular  school,  that  are 
dwarfing  the  religious  life  of  this  generation."  ^ 

3.  The  spirit  of  our  laws  does  not  prohibit  a  Chris- 
tian teacher  from  imparting  the  color  of  his  mind 
and  life  to  those  who  are  his  pupils.  The  prohibition 
of  religious  teaching  outside  of  the  formal  instructions 
of  the  school  cannot  be  logically  maintained.  Con- 
sider for  a  moment  what  teachers  are  permitted  to 
do  without  restriction.  They  assume  to  communi- 
cate to  the  child  what  they  believe  to  be  true,  with- 
out regard  to  the  parent's  opinions.  They  inculcate 
views  on  the  injurious  effects  of  alcohol  which  many 
parents,  as  manufacturers,  venders,  and  consumers 
of  intoxicants,  do  not  approve  ;  they  teach  a  morality 
which  parents  do  not  embody  in  their  conduct  or 
consider  as  established  science  ;  they  proclaim  eco- 
nomical principles  which  fathers  do  not  always 
accept  as  true,  and  sometimes  regard  as  false,  perni- 
cious, and  destructive  of  their  interests.  The  State 
goes  farther.  It  sometimes  makes  education  compul- 
sory. It  reaches  out  its  omnipotent  arm,  takes  out 
of  the  family  a  child  upon  whom  a  parent's  heart  is 
set,  places  him  in  a  school  under  social,  philosophical, 
and  moral  influences  which  his  father  may  not   ap- 

24  The  Relation  of  Christianity  to  Civil  Society  (the  Bohlen  Lectures  for 
1882),  by  Bishop  Samuel  S.  Harris,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  lecture  iv. 


CHRISTIANIT  Y  AND  ED  UCA  TION.  \  8  I 

prove,  and  sends  him  home  full  of  new  and  strange 
ideas  to  pronounce  judgment  upon  the  sentiments 
and  principles  of  the  parent  who  has  given  him  his 
life  and  supplies  his  bodily  wants.  Can  the  State  do 
all  this  and  exclude  religious  influence  because  it  is 
religious  ?  Can  the  State  with  any  show  of  reason 
adopt  texts  filled  with  the  names  of  Greek  and  Roman 
deities,  require  the  pupil  to  learn  them  and  the  attri- 
butes assigned  to  them,  and  then  reject  a  text  because 
it  contains  an  Anglo-Saxon  name  for  the  Deity  ? 
Can  it  require  tuition  about  innumerable  gods  in 
whom  no  one  believes,  the  excuse  being  that  no  one 
does  believe  in  them,  and  repudiate  all  instruction 
about  the  one  God  in  whom  nearly  all  believe,  on  the 
ground  that  they  do  believe  in  Him  ?  I  cannot 
understand  how  the  Bible,  read  without  comment, 
can  be  excluded  from  a  public  school,  or  how  the 
voice  of  a  teacher  can  be  silenced  when  he  expresses 
his  personal  religious  convictions.  The  State  can- 
not teach  religion,  but  how  can  it  prevent  a  free  man 
from  expressing  his  convictions  ?  There  is  more 
effect  of  beer  than  of  logic  in  that  Milwaukee  dog- 
matism that  fines  a  teacher  for  uttering  sentiments 
about  God  and  the  soul,  but  permits  him  to  teach 
the  atomic  evolution  of  the  world  and  that  mind  is 
merely  a  function  of  the  brain. 

Christianity  is  happily  not  dependent  upon  the 
agency  of  the  secular  school  for  its  extension.  It  is 
probably  well  for  the  development  of  our  national  life 
that  the  schools  are  beyond  ecclesiastical  control. 
The  distinctively  clerical  influence  is    conservative, 


1 82       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

rather  than  progressive,  regarding  moral  wellbeing 
rather  than  intellectual  advancement.  Such,  at  least, 
is  the  testimony  of  history.  And  yet  it  is  possible 
for  the  secularization  of  the  school  to  go  too  far. 
The  State  is  assuming  a  wholly  new  position  in  exclud- 
ing religious  influences  from  the  schoolroom.  Why 
not  let  them  enjoy  the  same  freedom  that  other 
influences  do  ?  Political  sectarianism  would  doubt- 
less be  as  obnoxious  to  partisans  as  religious  sectari- 
anism can  be  to  any,  yet  we  hear  the  claim  constantly 
pressed  that  political  science  shall  be  taught  in  our 
schools.  To  exclude  on  the  ground  of  religion  a 
book  or  an  influence  or  an  exercise  from  a  school 
seems  to  me  beyond  the  scope  of  the  State's  proper 
authority.  It  is  persecution  of  religion  because  it  is 
religion.     m 

The  Christian  men  of  this  nation  will  be  very  weak 
indeed  if  they  do  not  insist  that  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures and  Christian  teachers  be  everywhere  accorded 
the  privilege  of  exposition  and  utterance.  Christian 
duty  binds  every  disciple  of  Christ  to  let  the  light 
within  him  shine  upon  all  around  him,  most  of  all 
upon  those  whose  unshaped  lives  are  submitted  to  his 
moldino-  hand.  No  Christian  can  desire  that  our 
public  schools  shall  be  converted  into  propagandas  of 
a  sectarian  or  dogmatic  type.  But  it  may  be  fairly 
asked  that  the  influence  of  Jesus  might  have  its  place 
among  the  shaping  forces  ;  that  the  young  might  be 
tausfht  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of 
men ;  that  veracity,  reverence,  justice,  and  charity 
might  be  inculcated  ;  that  the   conceit  of  the  young 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  EDUCATION.  1 83 

might  be  tempered  with  some  respect  for  the  wisdom 
and  goodness  of  the  world's  great  men,  including 
those  mentioned  in  the  Bible ;  that  the  arithmetical 
consciousness  which  intensifies  the  selfishness  of  our 
asce  misdit  be  touched  with  some  consideration  for 
the  rights  of  others  ;  that  the  perception  of  present 
interests  might  be  accompanied  with  some  realization 
of  permanent  and  spiritual  needs  ;  that  rights  and 
duties  might  be  explained  in  the  light  of  a  personal 
authority  that  would  give  them  force  in  a  child's 
mind  ;  that  the  religious  sentiments  might  find  exer- 
cise in  some  simple  and  elementary  but  purely  volun- 
tary form  of  worship  that  would  at  least  preserve  the 
rudimentary  instincts  with  which  men  are  naturally 
endowed.  Religion  within  such  limits  may  have 
place  in  our  public  schools  without  violating  any 
principle  of  our  American  conception  of  the  State. 
The  rights  of  the  small  number  of  imported  atheists, 
agnostics,  and  positivists  who  would  oppose  such  a 
plan  need  not  be  seriously  affected.  Their  offspring 
might  be  marked  with  a  designating  badge  and  kept 
carefully  away  from  all  such  influence  !  Upon  such 
a  programme  Christians  of  every  name  might  easily 
unite:  and  how,  in  such  an  atmosphere,  would  preju- 
dice and  sectarianism  soften  and  dissolve,  a  general 
fellowship  in  high  objects  of  faith  drawing  the  coming- 
generations  together  in  the  sense  of  a  common 
brotherhood,  leaving  free  for  each  the  ever-diminish- 
ing differences  of  personal  opinion,  while  preserving 
the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace." 


VII. 

CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE   PROBLEMS 
OF   LEGISLATION. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    PROBLEMS   OF 
LEGISLATION. 


I.    THE    RELATION 


OF     CHRISTIANITY 
STATE. 


TO     THE 


i .  Christianity  has  no  Alliance  with  Civil  Power. 

2.  Gladstone's  Argument  for  a  State  Religion. 

3.  The  Fruits  of  State  Religions. 

4.  Ethical  and  Doctrinal  Failure  of  State  Religions. 

5.  The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Personality. 

6.  The  Public  Functions  of  Christian  Ministers. 


II.    LAW  AS   A   SOCIAL  FACTOR. 

1 .  The  Nature  of  a  Civil  Law. 

2.  Law  as  a  Moral  Influence. 

3.  The  Limitation  of  Legal  Influence. 

4.  The  Origin  and  Authority  of  Law. 

5.  The  Purpose  of  Law. 

6.  The  Contrast  of  Law  and  Morality. 

7.  Theories  of  the  Functions  of  the  State  : 

( 1 )  The  Theocratic  Theory ; 
(  2 )  The  Paternal  Theory ; 

(3)  The  Police  Theory; 

(4)  The  National  Theory. 

III.    THE  CHRISTIAN  CONCEPTION  OF  LEGISLATION. 

1 .  The  Element  of  Personality  in  Modern  Law. 

2.  Freedom  of  Conscience  and  Freedom  of  Contract. 

3.  The  Moral  Consciousness  as  Court  of  Appeal. 

4.  Christianity  the  Molder  of  the  Moral  Consciousness. 


a      m 

VII. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    PROBLEMS   OF 
LEGISLATION. 

I. 

i.  It  would  be  superfluous  for  me  in  this  presence 
to  recount  the  history  of  Christianity  in  relation  to 
the  civil  law,  or  to  enumerate  the  theories  that  have 
been  held  concerning  that  relation.  It  is  evident  that 
Christianity  itself  disclaims  and  repudiates  any  such 
relation  whatever,  except  in  so  far  as  personal  pro- 
tection is  demanded  for  Christian  men  in  the  exer- 
cise of  their  natural  and  spiritual  rights.  "  My  king- 
dom is  not  of  this  world,"  said  Christ,  and  no  crown 
of  temporal  sovereignty  was  ever  claimed  by  him. 
Paul  made  no  higher  demand  of  the  empire  which 
finally  adopted  the  cross  as  its  symbol  than  mere 
recognition  and  protection  as  a  Roman  citizen. 

2.  It  is  the  State  rather  than  the  Church  that  has 
derived  advantage  from  the  historic  union  of  the  two. 
From  a  philosophic  point  of  view  it  is  not  difficult  to 
show  some  reason  for  the  alliance  of  legislative  with 
ecclesiastical  power.  One  of  the  most  illustrious  of 
modern  statesmen,  Mr.  Gladstone,  says  :  "  Religion 
is  applicable  to  a  state  because  it  is  the  office  of  the 
State,  in  its  personality,  to  evolve  the  social  life  of 
man,  which  social  life  is  essentially  moral  in  the  ends 


1 58       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

it  contemplates,  in  the  subject-matter  on  which  it 
feeds,  and  in  the  restraints  and  motives  it  requires  ; 
and  which  can  only  be  effectually  moral  when  it  is 
religious."  :  There  are  two  assumptions  here  which 
are  certainly  open  to  question.  The  first  is  the 
attribution  of  "personality"  to  the  State,  which  we 
have  formerly  discussed  in  treating  of  Dr.  Mulford's 
idea  of  the  nation  as  a  "  moral  person,"  and  found 
it  to  be  a  fanciful  diversion  of  metaphysics.  The 
second  assumption  is  that  the  State  evolves  the 
social  life  of  man  in  the  moral  order,  which  implies 
that  the  individual  life  is  morally  ordered  by  public 
authority ;  a  proposition  which,  however  it  may  be 
regarded  in  England,  must  provoke  a  smile  in  the 
United  States.  But  the  final  objection  to  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's argument  for  a  state  religion  is  the  very  fact 
which  he  adduces  in  favor  of  it  :  that  the  "  social  life 
of  man  is  essentially  moral 'in  the  ends  it  contemplates, 
in  the  subject-matter  on  which  it  feeds,  and  in  the 
restraints  and  motives  it  requires."  The  "  restraints  " 
and  "motives"  offered  by  the  State  are  not  moral, 
but  compulsory.  It  is  precisely  because  much  of 
the  social  life  of  man  is  moral  that  it  cannot  be 
wholly  regulated  by  the  State. 

3.  Before  discussing  the  nature  of  legislation  and 
the  problems  with  which  it  deals,  let  us  see  how  a 
state  religion  has  affected  that  "social  life  of  man  " 
which  Mr.  Gladstone  says  is  "  essentially  moral." 
The  union  of  Church  and  State  has  led  to  terrible 
religious  wars,  which  would  never  have  happened  but 

1  Quoted  in  Woolsey's  Political  Science,  vol.  ii. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LEGISLATION.  I  89 

for  the  alliance  of  religion  with  political  power,  as 
the  wars  with  the  Albigenses,  the  Hussite  War,  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  and  the  English  Rebellion.  It 
has  forced  compliance  with  offensive  ritual  and  cere- 
mony, destroying  personal  independence,  provoking 
hypocrisy,  and  punishing  with  imprisonment  and 
death  sincere  recalcitrants.  It  has  shut  out  from 
the  English  parliament  men  of  great  ability  and 
patriotism  because  they  were  disqualified  for  taking 
the  communion  of  the  Established  Church.  For 
centuries  it  excluded  all  dissenters  from  the  privi- 
leges of  the  universities.  It  has  intensified  social 
rancor  and  directed  obliquy  against  a  sincere  and 
spiritually  minded  class.  It  has  trammeled  thought 
and  deadened  spirituality  by  binding  the  clergy  to 
political  favor.  It  has  prevented  intermarriage  on 
grounds  that  were  ridiculous.  It  has  caused  prose- 
cutions and  persecutions  innumerable,  and  made  the 
"spiritual  lords  "  the  sport  of  the  serious. 

4.  Besides  these  fruits  there  has  been  a  failure 
to  accomplish  the  results  intended.  An  established 
religion  has  usually  neglected  the  poor,  for  whose 
"social  life"  alone  it  could  be  justified,  in  order  to 
court  the  rich.  It  has  failed  to  suppress  or  even 
retard  the  growth  of  unbelief,  and  the  countries 
where  it  exists  are  precisely  those  where  skepticism 
has  grown  most  rapidly  and  is  the  strongest.  Nor 
has  it  secured  discipline  and  purity,  either  doctrinal 
or  practical,  even  among  communicants.  Finally, 
the  best  attainments  of  the  state  churches  them- 
selves are  prompted  by  voluntary,  rather  than  legal, 


I9O       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

action,  as  in  the  sums  subscribed  for  missions.  Such 
are  the  comments  of  history  upon  the  doctrine  that 
it  is  "  the  office  of  the  State,  in  its  personality,  to 
evolve  the  social  life  of  man."  False  in  theory,  it 
has  proved  false  in  practice,  and  commends  itself  to 
no  one  so  naturally  as  to  a  prime  minister,  in  whom 
the  State's  "personality"  becomes  self-conscious. 

5.  Christianity  places  responsibility  for  social  pro- 
gress where  alone  power  to  achieve  it  may  be  found 
—  in  the  actual  individual  persons  who  constitute  the 
State,  not  in  the  State  itself,  endowed  with  an  imagi- 
nary "personality"  as  powerless  in  action  as  it  is 
baseless  in  thought.  What  Christianity  demands  is 
that  each  one  of  those  living  and  responsible  persons 
shall  be  made  to  feel  that  he  is  one,  and  that  he  shall 
be  protected  in  his  inalienable  rights  of  thought  and 
conscience,  sheltered  under  the  mighty  sword  of  the 
civil  power,  which  shall  fall  upon  no  man  to  compel, 
but  only  to  defend.  The  mission  of  Christianity  to 
mankind  is  not  to  force,  but  to  win  ;  not  to  drive,  but 
to  draw ;  not  to  render  masses  of  men  mechanically 
virtuous,  but  to  render  every  soul  vitally  spiritual. 
The  attitude  of  Christ  toward  all  legislation  is  shown 
in  his  treatment  of  the  Mosaic  law.  He  pointed  to 
himself  as  its  personal  fulfilment,  and  reduced  its 
complex  code  to  one  essential  principle.  Love  and 
personality  are  Christ's  two  leading  ideas,  so  far  as 
his  life-giving  power  over  men  is  a  matter  of  ideas 
at  all.  Love,  crowning  and  perfecting  personality ; 
personality,  culminating  in  love,  —  these  are  the 
fountains  of  all  Christian  thought  and  of  all  Christian 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   LEGISLATION. 


I9I 


practice.  The  perfect  love  in  the  perfect  person  — 
this  is  the  incarnation  toward  which  creation  centred 
and  from  which  redemption  radiates. 

But  Christianity  is  not  an  antinomian  influence 
either  in  the  moral  or  the  political  spheres.  Person- 
ality is  the  only  foundation  upon  which  either  moral 
or  civil  law  can  be  based.  Deny  it,  and  laws  of  every 
kind  are  mere  arbitrary  rules  of  expediency.  The 
aim  of  law  is  the  definition  of  rights.  Rights  arise 
from  personality.  Only  persons  can  have  rights. 
Love  seeks  the  wellbeing  of  its  object.  That  well- 
being  is  attained,  with  respect  to  human  persons,  only 
when  each  one  has  his  rights.  Love,  therefore,  is 
realized  only  in  the  light  of  law.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  Christ  sums  up  the  law  as  consisting 
finally  in  love,  which  is  the  "fulfilling  of  the  law." 

6.  How,  then,  is  Christianity  related  to  human 
legislation,  to  the  framing  of  civil  laws  ?  It  holds 
steadily  before  the  eyes  of  men  a  truth  which  they 
have  so  often  forgotten  —  the  dignity  of  man. 
Through  its  prophets,  the  ministers  of  Christ,  it 
ever  voices  forth  this  fundamental  doctrine,  that 
man,  every  man,  is  by  nature  a  moral  being,  a  person 
with  inalienable  rights,  and  bound  by  correlative 
duties.  Upon  this  foundation  of  a  community  of 
nature  it  erects  that  other  truth,  that  every  man  should 
love  his  neighbor  as  himself.  Lineal  successors,  not 
of  the  priests  of  the  Jewish  dispensation,  but  of  the 
"goodly  fellowship  "  of  the  glorious  Hebrew  prophets, 
the  ministers  of  Christ  find  it  a  part  of  their  vocation 
to  denounce  wrong,  to  explain  right,  to  enlighten  and 


192       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

quicken  the  conscience,  and  thus  to  lead  the  people 
to  the  realization  of  duty.  Let  them  see  to  it  that 
they  magnify  their  calling,  avoiding  the  perils  of  par- 
tisan entanglement  and  alliance  with  political  dema- 
gogues, pressing  fearlessly  home  upon  the  people  the 
principles  of  Christ  that  underlie  our  Republican 
Constitution  and  have  accomplished  the  fulfilment 
of  that  prophecy  of  our  Lord,  "  The  truth  shall  make 
you  free." 

Not,  then,  by  the  dictation  of  statutes,  not  by 
forcing  its  creed  or  even  its  morality  upon  the  people, 
would  Christianity  extend  its  influence  in  the  world. 
To  deny  or  restrict  those  rights  of  thought  and  con- 
science which  it  assumes  as  the  cardinal  elements  of 
its  doctrine  would  be  a  suicidal  act.  Maintaining  his 
own  right  to  representation  in  the  making  of  laws, 
and  seeing  in  those  laws  inherent  limitations  as 
affecting  personal  liberty,  a  Christian  man  must 
not  only  grant  but  strive  to  secure  to  every  other 
man  the  equal  recognition  of  his  right. 

II, 

Having  outlined  the  spirit  of  Christianity  toward 
legislation,  let  us  now  briefly  consider  law  as  a  social 
factor. 

1.  "  A  law,"  says  a  distinguished  writer  on  jurispru- 
dence, "  is  a  command  proceeding  from  the  supreme 
political  authority  of  a  state  and  addressed  to  the 
persons  who  are  the  subjects  of  that  authority."  2  In 
a  state  like   our  American  republic,    the    "  supreme 

2  Sheldon  Amos's  Science  of  Law,  chap.  iv. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LEGISLATION.  1 93 

political  authority"  is  a  legislature,  state  or  national, 
chosen  by  the  suffrages  of  the  adult  male  population 
in  whom  political  sovereignty  is  assumed  to  reside. 
We  therefore  consider  ourselves  a  "self-governed" 
people,  being  subjects  and  sovereigns  at  once. 
Nothing  would  seem  at  the  first  glance  more  easy 
than  the  realization  of  any  ideal  which  the  majority 
might  entertain,  by  the  simple  process  of  legislation. 
2.  That  law  is  a  potent  social  factor  in  human  life, 
limiting  and  shaping  the  activity  of  all,  cannot  be 
denied.  A  moral  constitution  of  society  is,  doubtless, 
anterior  to  a  legal  one.  It  is  the  source  out  of  which 
law  originates ;  and  yet,  as  Sheldon  Amos  says  : 
"  Apart  from  the  strength,  coherence,  and  perma- 
nence imparted  by  law  and  government,  the  most 
hopeful  moral  growths  are  too  frail  and  feeble  to 
endure,  still  less  to  come  to  maturity."  3  Law  reacts 
upon  the  people  as  a  pledge  to  abstinence  does  upon 
an  inebriate.  It  creates  a  standard  by  which  each 
one  judges  himself,  even  though  he  may  not  attain  to 
its  requirements.  "  So  soon  as  a  law  is  made  and  lifted 
out  of  the  region  of  controversy,  it  begins  to  exercise 
a  moral  influence  which  is  no  less  intense  and  wide- 
spreading  for  being  almost  imperceptible.  Though 
law  can  never  attempt  to  forbid  all  that  is  morally 
wrong,  yet  that  comes  to  be  held  to  be  wrong  which 
the  law  forbids."4  When  once  enacted,  the  people 
not  only  obey  a  law  which  they  have  opposed,  but 
"by  a  peculiar  action  of  the   imagination   they   will 

3  Amos,  op.  cit.  preface. 

4  Amos,  op.  cit.  chap.  xiii. 


194       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

unconsciously  attribute  to  it  a  quasi-mysterious  origin 
and  banish  all  memory  of  the  competing  views  of 
expediency  amidst  which  it  arose."  Because  of  this 
confessed  power  of  law  over  life,  men  are  inclined  to 
look  to  legislation  for  the  panacea  of  all  social  ills. 

3.  But  the  ameliorating  influence  of  law  is  not 
without  limitation.  There  is  ample  room  for  the 
persistence  of  evil  when  law  has  done  its  utmost 
to  define  rights  and  to  cover  them  with  its  protection. 
"A  man  may  be  a  bad  husband,  a  bad  father,  a  bad 
guardian,  without  coming  into  conflict  with  the  rules 
of  a  single  law.  He  maybe  an  extortionate  landlord, 
a  wasteful  tenant,  a  hard  dealer,  an  unreliable  trades- 
man, and  yet  the  legal  machinery  of  the  country  be 
quite  powerless  to  stimulate  or  to  chastise  him.  He 
may  be,  furthermore,  a  self-seeking  politician,  an 
unscrupulous  demagogue,  or  an  indolent  aristocrat, 
and  yet  satisfy  to  the  utmost  the  claims  of  the  law 
upon  him.  Nevertheless,  it  is  just  in  the  conduct  of 
these  several  relationships  that  the  bulk  of  human 
life  consists  and  on  them  that  national  prosperity  and 
honor  depend."  5 

4.  The  reason  of  the  impotency  of  law  to  rectify 
all  human  ills  arising  from  personal  action  will 
appear,  if  we  consider  the  origin  of  law  and  what  it 
is  that  gives  it  authority.  Civil  law  has  two  distinct 
sources.  The  first  is  unconscious  custom,  which 
slowly  comes  to  have  the  force  of  law  in  regulating 
conduct  and  at  last  obtains  conscious  recognition. 
The  second  is  legislative  enactment.     It  is  upon  this 

5  Amos,  op.  cit.  chap.  iii. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LEGISLATION.  1 95 

that  hope  rests  in  the  minds  of  those  who  expect 
legislation  to  reconstruct  and  perfect  human  society. 
But  they  fail  to  estimate  its  precise  origin  and  value. 
Even  in  our  representative  republic,  law  is  not  always, 
as  theory  would  lead  us  to  suppose  it  must  be,  the 
expression  of  the  popular  will.  It  is  often  dictated  by 
powerful  corporations,  sometimes  by  single  individ- 
uals, usually  by  the  interests  of  the  legislators  or  a 
class  of  their  constituents,  seldom  by  a  majority  of 
the  best  qualified  electors,  and  never  by  the  whole 
people. 

Law  is  always  born  amid  the  pains  of  controversy 
and  is  the  child  of  compromise.  It  almost  never 
embodies  the  results  of  pure  reason  or  the  highest 
morality.  It  affords  security  for  such  rights  as  can 
probably  be  enforced  and  aims  at  such  justice  as  it  is 
expedient  to  seek.  Considered  in  its  totality,  it  is 
simply  the  expression  of  the  character  of  the  people 
as  a  whole,  representing  what  they  permit  as  much  as 
what  they  desire.  Whether  originating  in  custom  or 
enactment,  it  is  seldom  better,  and  is  sometimes 
worse,  than  the  average  of  the  personal  wills  whose 
command  it  purports  to  be. 

The  effectiveness  of  a  law  is  limited  by  the  condi- 
tions of  its  origin.  If,  by  some  fortuity,  a  law  is 
beyond  the  ability  of  the  average  man  to  observe,  it 
becomes  nugatory  both  in  its  interpretation  and  its 
execution.  While  the  legislator  is  supposed  to  regard 
the  wellbeing  of  the  people  as  a  whole,  the  judge 
and  the  executive  observe  the  effect  of  the  law  upon 
the  individual  in   concrete  cases.     Accordingly,  the 


196       SOCIAI    INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

judge  interprets  the  law  and  the  executive  applies  it 
with  more  regard  to  the  personal  conditions  of  its 
enforcement.  Hence  a  really  bad  law  either  quietly 
becomes  a  dead  letter,  or  is  soon  repealed  by  a  special 
revolt  of  the  governed. 

5.  We  obtain  a  new  view  of  the  nature  of  law,  if 
we  consider  its  purpose.  It  assumes  the  existence  of 
intelligent  and  self-determined  beings,  who  possess 
rights  and  at  the  same  time  are  likely  to  invade  one 
another's  rights.  Without  law  there  would  be  the 
absolute  rule  of  the  stronger  and  the  oppression  of 
the  weaker.  It  aims  to  prevent  this  collision  and  to 
confine  each  social  unit  to  the  sphere  of  his  rights. 
It  would  preserve  all  by  restraining  each.  To  this 
end  it  defines  rights  and  affixes  a  penalty  to  their 
violation  sufficient  to  prevent  their  invasion.  It  first 
creates  a  government  to  serve  as  the  organ  of  its 
commands,  and  defines  the  sphere  and  functions  of 
the  government  in  a  constitution.  It  then  issues 
commands  for  the  preservation  of  the  government 
itself,  the  freedom  of  the  persons  who  constitute  the 
State,  and  the  perpetuity  of  the  institutions  necessary 
to  the  life  of  the  State,  such  as  the  family,  property, 
and  contract. 

With  such  a  purpose,  it  is  evident  that  law  has 
limits  as  touching  human  conduct.  It  deals  only 
with  acts,  not  with  motives  ;  with  relations  between 
men,  not  with  the  life  of  individuals.  It  does  not 
presume  to  say  how  fully  any  man  shall  realize  his 
own  rights,  but  simply  that  he  shall  not  invade  the 
rights  of  others. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LEGISLATION. 


197 


6.  There  is  clearly  not  only  a  distinction  but  a 
perfect  contrast  between  civil  law  and  morality.  Law 
appeals  for  its  enforcement  to  external  compulsion, 
morality  to  the  conscience  and  the  dignity  of  moral 
freedom.  Law  terrifies  and  makes  men  afraid,  moral- 
ity emboldens  and  makes  men  brave  ;  law  assumes 
that  selfishness  is  the  governing  principle  of  life, 
morality  that  justice  is  more  authoritative  than  self- 
love  ;  law  formulates  distinct  propositions  and  precepts 
whose  letter  must  be  obeyed,  morality  avoids  verbal 
rules  and  stereotyped  maxims,  putting  love  in  the  place 
of  prohibitions  ;  law  regards  the  overt  act,  morality 
the  intent  of  the  heart  ;  law  estimates  rectitude  by  the 
non-violation  of  its  prohibitions,  morality  by  the  posi- 
tive character  and  actions  of  the  man.  Clearly,  it  is 
not  the  purpose  of  law  to  codify  morality,  and  moral- 
ity cannot  expect  universal  dominion  through  the 
operation  of  law.  If  we  trace  law  and  morality  in 
their  specific  applications,  we  still  more  distinctly 
perceive  their  antithesis.  "  Law,  indeed,"  says  Amos, 
"marks  out  the  limits  of  the  family  and  provides 
general  remedies  for  the  grosser  violations  of  its 
integrity.  But  it  can  go,  and  does  go,  a  very  little 
way  toward  making  good  husbands  and  wives,  fathers 
and  mothers,  sons  and  daughters,  brothers  and  sisters. 
Law  can  create  and  define  the  relations  of  landlord 
and  tenant,  farmer  and  laborer ;  but  it  is  well  known 
how  little  it  can  do  directly  to  guide  landlords  in  the 
rent  they  morally  ought  to  exact,  or  the  compensation 
for  improvements  made  by  an  outgoing  tenant  which 
they  ought  to  allow,  or  to  compel  farmers  to  remun- 


I98       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

erate  their  laborers,  build  cottages  for  them,  and  exact 
work  from  them  in  the  way  least  likely  to  render 
them  paupers  in  their  old  age.  So  with  contract. 
The  operations  of  the  market  must  meet  with  some 
other  stimulus  and  guide  than  legal  rules,  if  men  are 
to  be  scrupulously  honest  in  keeping  engagements,  in 
selling  pure  and  unadulterated  goods,  in  laying  bare 
all  the  hidden  vices  of  the  things  for  which  they  are 
endeavoring  to  find  customers.  Law  can  do  none  of 
these  things  directly.  Indeed,  by  trying  to  do  them 
directly,  it  may  only  weaken  that  force  of  morality 
which  alone  is  equal  to  the  task."  ? 
^  7.  Various  theories  have  been  held  concerning  the 
functions  of  the  State  as  a  moral  agency,  and  these 
we  shall  briefly  notice. 

(1)  The  theocratic  theory  assumes  that  the  State  is 
founded  upon  a  moral  and  religious  basis  and,  there- 
fore, clothes  the  government  with  moral  and  religious 
authority.  This  blending  of  political  and  religious 
power  has  been  almost  universal  in  the  great  historic 
nations.  The  priest  has  usually  been  the  counselor  of 
the  ruler,  and  often  the  ruler  has  united  the  political 
and  spiritual  headship  of  the  nation  in  his  own  person. 
Law  has  fortified  itself  in  the  consciences  of  men  by 
invoking  the  sanction  of  morality  and  religion,  aided 
by  the  ceremonials  of  the  prevailing  faith,  returning 
for  this  service  the  protection  and  compulsion  of 
political  power  in  the  enforcement  of  morals  and 
religious  creeds.  There  are  three  traits  of  this  con- 
ception of  the  State  which   unfit   it   for  the   modern 

6  Amos,  op.  cit.  chap.  iii. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LEGISLATION.  1 99 

mind:  (1)  It  exalts  the  political  authority  to  a 
superhuman  height,  rendering  it  absolute  and  declar- 
ing it  infallible,  while  the  individual  conscience  and 
reason  are  repressed  and  silenced.  (2)  It  emascu- 
lates the  powers  of  progress  by  assuming  the  posses- 
sion of  a  final  perfection,  admitting  of  no  criticism, 
experiment,  or  spontaneity.  (3)  It  is  harsh  and  cruel 
in  its  judgments,  claiming  a  divine  right  of  retribution 
in  its  punishments,  exercising  an  infinite  jurisdiction 
over  life  with  a  finite  comprehension  of  its  facts  and 
principles.  A  true  theocracy  once  existed  upon  the 
earth,  but  it  soon  lapsed  into  a  false  one.  So  long  as 
the  Jews  retained  the  theocratic  constitution  of  Moses, 
they  prospered  even  amidst  adversity  ;  but  they 
adopted  a  monarchy  with  theocratic  pretensions  and 
suffered  the  consequences  of  their  apostasy. 

(2)  The  paternal  theory  is  a  residuum  of  the  mon- 
archical regime.  A  good  king  is,  indeed,  in  a  certain 
sense  "the  father  of  his  people."  He  has  their  well- 
being  near  his  heart  and  ever  in  his  mind.  In  a 
kingdom  or  empire,  the  analogy  of  a  family  is  not  an 
unnatural  one.  But  how  shall  we  apply  this  concep- 
tion to  a  republic?  Are  the  "sovereign  people" 
children?  Who  is  the  "father  of  the  people"?  A 
father  of  a  family  is  the  agent  upon  whom  the  happi- 
ness of  his  children  largely  depends  and  he  is  in  a 
measure  responsible  for  it.  A  republican  State  does 
not  hold  in  its  hand  the  happiness  of  the  people 
and  is  not  accountable  for  it.  Bluntschli  says  :  "The 
happiness  of  men  is,  for  the  most  part,  independent  of 
the  State.     Even  most  of  the  material  goods  on  which 


200      SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

human  welfare  is  dependent,  dwellings,  food,  clothing, 
and  income,  are  acquired,  not  through  the  State,  but 
by  the  labor  and  saving  of  individuals.  Still  more  is 
this  true  of  the  spiritual  goods,  on  which  the  ideal 
wealth  and  happiness  of  mankind  are  founded.  It  is 
not  the  State  which  endows  men  with  their  talents 
and  capacities  ;  these  are  gifts  of  nature,  and  they 
differ  in  individual  cases  instead  of  being  common  to 
all.  The  State  can  confer  on  no  one  the  delights  of 
friendship  and  love,  the  charm  of  scientific  study,  or 
of  poetical  and  artistic  creation,  the  consolations  of 
religion,  or  the  purity  and  sanctification  of  the  soul 
united  with  God." " 

(3)  The  police  theory  would  limit  the  purpose  of 
the  State  to  the  realization  of  personal  liberty  in  the 
enjoyment  of  natural  rights.  Its  sole  end  is  said 
to  be  justice.  It  assumes  that  each  man  can  best 
pursue  and  secure  his  own  happiness,  if  he  is  per- 
mitted to  use  without  restraint  or  interference  such 
powers  as  he  may  possess  for  the  accomplishment  of 
his  own  freely  chosen  ends.  Law,  as  regarded  by 
this  theory,  is  simply  a  necessary  evil,  a  protection 
offered  to  the  well-disposed  against  the  rapacity  and 
injustice  of  the  ill-disposed.  There  is,  doubtless, 
much  of  truth  in  this  doctrine,  but  it  fails  to  formu- 
late the  whole.  While  morality  and  happiness  include 
too  much  for  the  State  to  realize,  because  both 
depend  largely  upon  conditions  of  mind  and  heart 
which  the  State  cannot  reach  or  control,  justice  alone 
includes  too  little.     This  circumscription  of  the  func- 

7  Bluntschli,  Allgemeine  Staatslehre. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LEGISLATION.  20I 

tions  of  the  State  wholly  overlooks  the  interests  of 
the  people  as  a  whole.  Even  admitting  that  the 
nation  is  nothing,  apart  from  the  individuals  who 
compose  it,  there  are  material  and  intellectual  needs 
which  individuals,  as  such,  cannot  supply,  and  not  very 
effectually  by  voluntary  incorporation.  Roads,  canals, 
bridges,  statistical  bureaus,  explorations,  general  de- 
fence, and  many  other  things  are  for  the  benefit  of  all, 
yet  would  not  be  privately  undertaken  by  any.  The 
police  theory  of  the  State  fails  to  grasp  the  concep- 
tion of  national  life  and  to  realize  the  existence  of 
public  rights  and  duties.  Itself  a  reaction  against 
the  paternalism  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  has  pro- 
voked a  reaction  against  its  own  narrowness  that  is 
destined  to  efface  it  from  the  public  mind. 

(4)  The  national  theory  avoids  on  the  one  hand 
the  identification  of  law  with  morality,  which  too 
much  extends  the  sphere  of  political  action  ;  and 
on  the  other,  the  restriction  of  law  to  the  mere 
protection  of  rights,  which  too  much  contracts  it. 
There  are  for  every  people  a  possible  development 
and  perfection  of  capacities  that  can  be  realized 
only  in  a  national  life.  This  includes  the  encourage- 
ment of  morality  and  the  protection  of  rights,  but 
involves  much  more.  As  the  life-task  of  an  individ- 
ual is  to  develop  his  personal  powers,  so  the  life-task 
of  a  nation  is  to  develop  the  national  resources. 
This  does  not  include  responsibility  for  the  personal 
welfare  of  all  the  members  of  the  State.  To  care 
for  all  is  impossible  unless  the  State  becomes  an 
omniscient    providence,  watching   over   the    citizens 


202       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

with  a  paternal  solicitude.  No  representative  gov- 
ernment possesses  this  attribute,  and  none  can  be 
expected  to  fill  the  role  of  father  to  all  the  political 
prodigals.  Nor  is  this  necessary  to  the  development 
of  the  national  life.  To  establish,  maintain,  and 
perfect  such  institutions  and  such  enterprises  as  the 
prosperity  of  the  nation  requires  —  such  is  the  duty 
of  the  State.  Resolved  into  its  lowest  terms,  this 
is  simply  the  care  of  all  the  citizens  for  the  welfare 
of  the  whole.  This  is  possible,  for  every  citizen 
may  be  and  ought  to  be  interested  in  the  welfare  of 
the  whole  nation.  To  reverse  the  statement,  to  say 
that  the  State,  the  abstract  and  impersonal  whole, 
should  be  responsible  for  the  happiness  of  its  con- 
crete and  personal  citizens,  is  an  empty  and  impossi- 
ble proposition.  We  cannot  look  to  the  State  for 
our  wellbeing ;  we  must  ourselves  secure  the  well- 
being  of  the  State.  If  we  say  that  a  part  of  the 
sovereign  people  may  look  to  another  part  for  their 
welfare  ;  that,  for  example,  the  poor  may  so  look  to 
the  rich,  we  forget  the  co-equal  sovereignty  on  which 
a  representative  republic  is  built,  and  assign  a  differ- 
ence of  rights  and  duties  which  implies  a  distinction 
of  social  classes.  If  men  are  politically  equal,  a 
part  cannot  be  the  political  wards  of  another  part. 
As  soon  as  a  dependent  class  appears  sovereignty 
vanishes  from  that  class.  A  "  sovereign  cannot  take 
tips,"  cannot  ask  for  poarboirc,  without  degradation.8 
The  citizens  of  a  representative  republic  must  secure 

8  Elaborated  by  W.  G.  Sumner,  What  Social  Classes  owe  to  Each  Other, 
chap.  ii. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   IEGISLATION.  203 

by  their  strength  and  wisdom  the  prosperity  of  the 
nation  ;  not  gather,  like  helpless  children,  about  the 
knees  of  a  parent,  asking  for  bread.  In  the  civil 
order  there  is  no  "father"  to  meet  the  "prodigal" 
on  the  way  ;  and  to  kill  the  "fatted  calf"  is  to  rob 
the  industrious  brother.  When  a  people  imagine 
such  a  father  in  a  king,  they  preface  their  petition 
with  the  scriptural  acknowledgment :  "  Let  me  be 
as  one  of  thy  hired  servants,  for  I  am  no  more 
worthy  to  be  called  thy  son."  For  a  citizen  to 
receive  aid  from  the  State,  except  for  actual  service 
rendered,  is  an  abdication  of  sovereignty. 

There  are  two  provinces  of  human  life  which 
legislation  alone  can  never  really  ameliorate.  The 
first  of  these  is  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  of  the 
soul.  The  law  may,  indeed,  control  outward  actions, 
forcing  external  compliance  with  codes  and  creeds, 
but  it  cannot  produce  that  internal  consecration  to 
lofty  purpose  or  ennobling  faith  in  which  all  true 
morality  and  religion  essentially  consist.  The  other 
is  the  production  of  wealth.  Law  is  not  creative. 
It  regulates  and  conserves,  but  it  does  not  produce. 
It  may  maintain  conditions  favorable  to  the  creation 
of  wealth,  by  offering  protection  to  all  who  put  forth 
productive  energies,  but  it  is  upon  the  use  of  these 
by  the  productive  agents  themselves  that  all  wealth- 
creation  depends.  Law  may,  by  its  restrictions, 
cripple  and  paralyze  the  industrial  energies.  It  may 
also  redistribute  wealth.  It  may  authorize  the  issue 
of  debased  money,  it  may  initiate  the  creation  of 
public  works,  it  may  grant   pensions   and    subsidies 


204       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

to  classes  of  persons,  it  may  even  invade  the  rela- 
tions of  employer  and  employed  and  control  the 
division  of  products ;  but  these  actions  do  not  in- 
crease wealth,  they  simply  transfer  it.  The  two 
strong  political  fanaticisms  of  our  time  are  the 
beliefs  that  the  State  can  make  men  good,  and  that 
the  State  can  make  men  rich.  Both  are  pernicious, 
because  they  are  false  and  because  they  would  carry 
their  falsehood  into  the  field  of  practice. 

III. 

i.  When  we  consider  that  so  much  of  human  leg- 
islation has  been  designed  to  compel  men  to  save 
their  souls  by  accepting  a  state  religion  and  to  make 
favored  classes  rich  and  powerful  at  the  expense  of 
others,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  Buckle's 
opinion  that  the  only  progress  made  in  human  legis- 
lation during  the  last  five  hundred  years  has  been 
made  through  repealing  laws.9  Freedom  of  conscience 
and  freedom  of  contract  are  the  two  great  legal 
advances  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Both  are,  in  a 
sense,  the  triumphs  of  Christianity,  and  are  simple 
deductions  from  its  idea  of  personality.  I  do  not 
affirm  that  the  idea  of  personality  was  unknown  to 
the  Roman  law,  for  it  was  the  central  idea  in  that 
majestic  system  ;  but  it  was  a  legal  abstraction,  as 
much  so  as  the  artificial  persons,  or  corporations, 
which  that  law  recognized.  It  was  Christianity  that 
filled  this  abstract  form  with  vital  ethical  contents. 
Roman  law  saw  a  person  in  a  citizen,  but  none  in  a 

o  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization,  vol.  i,  chap.  v. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LEGISLATION.  205 

slave,  a  child,  or  a  woman.  Christianity  at  once 
changed  this  conception  and  has  reconstructed  legis- 
lation by  its  doctrine  of  the  human  soul. 

2.  It  seem ^  to  me  that  the  interest  of  Christianity 
lies  in  the  legal  maintenance  of  these  two  principles  : 
freedom  of  conscience  and  freedom  of  contract.  It 
will  doubtless  require  brave  and  vigilant  men  to 
defend  them,  as  it  has  to  win  them,  for   humanity. 

But  there  are  limits  to  personal  freedom,  because 
the  freedom  of  one  may  invade  the  freedom  of 
another.  Are  men  to  speak  and  act  without  restraint  ? 
That  would  be  anarchy.  If  men  were  to  propose  and 
advocate  the  erection  of  temples  to  Aphrodite  and  to 
revive  her  impure  worship,  on  the  pretext  of  religious 
faith  and  ceremonial,  would  it  be  disregarding  the 
freedom  of  conscience  to  prohibit  them  ?  If  others 
were  to  employ  children  to  labor  for  a  pittance  at 
unhealthy  toil  and  for  unnatural  hours,  would  it  be  a 
violation  of  the  freedom  of  contract  to  forbid  them  ? 
The  real  problem  of  legislation  is  to  find  the  circum- 
ference of  personal  rights  that  surrounds  each  person 
and  to  draw  the  line  of  prohibition  there. 

When  we  make  laws  to  suppress  the  publication  of 
obscene  books  and  pictures,  it  is  because  the  young 
and  susceptible  have  rights  as  well  as  writers  and 
publishers.  When  we  desire  rigid  divorce  legislation, 
it  is  because  helpless  women  and  innocent  children 
have  rights  as  well  as  sensual  men.  When  the  legal 
regulation  of  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicants 
is  proposed,  it  is  because  wives  and  children  and 
fathers  and  mothers  and  taxpayers  have  rights  as 
well  as  brewers  and  distillers  and  dealers. 


206       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

3.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  attempt  the  solution 
of  these  practical  problems  of  legislation,  so  delicate 
and  difficult  as  to  tax  the  powers  of  the  most  expert 
statesmen;  to  judge  between  "  overlegislation  "  and 
"  laissez  j raire  run  mad;"  to  discuss  the  respective 
merits  of  "prohibition"  and  "high  license;"  or  to 
finish  in  a  paragraph  the  work  of  a  generation. 
These  are  problems  that  will  ultimately  find  their 
solution  in  the  moral  consciousness  of  a  great  people, 
coming  again  and  again  to  their  discussion  with  ever- 
enlarging  experience  and  ever-increased  wisdom. 
The  important  consideration  is  that  it  is  in  the  moral 
consciousness  of  the  people  that  the  solution  will  be 
found  at  last. 

An  ancient  Chinese  legend  runs  :  "  The  three  great 
religious  teachers  of  the  Celestial  Empire,  from  their 
heavenly  abode  beholding  with  profound  sorrow  the 
degeneracy  of  their  people,  and  mourning  that  their 
lifework  seemed  so  entire  a  failure,  returned,  to  the 
earth  in  order  to  find  some  suitable  missionary  whom 
they  could  send  forth  as  a  reformer.  They  came  in 
their  wanderings  to  an  old  man  sitting  as  a  guardian 
of  a  fountain.  He  talked  to  them  so  wisely  and  so 
earnestly  of  the  great  concerns  which  they  had  most 
at  heart,  that  they  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  was 
the  very  man  for  the  work  which  they  wished  to 
accomplish.  But  when  they  proposed  the  mission  to 
him,  he  replied  :  '  It  is  the  upper  part  of  me  only  that 
is  of  flesh  and  blood ;  the  lower  part  is  of  stone.  I 
can  talk  about  virtue  and  good  works,  but  I  cannot 
rise  from  my  seat  to  perform  any  righteous  acts.' ' 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  LEGISLATION.  207 

The  apologue  well  pictures  human  legislation,  which 
can  discuss  virtue  but  cannot  enforce  it.  Powerless 
to  realize  its  own  ideals,  it  needs  the  animation  of  a 
superior  life  to  impart  activity.  It  requires  the  cure 
of  its  moral  petrifaction  and  awaits  the  words  of  the 
divine  Master  :  "  Rise  and  follow  me." 

4.  The  most  powerful  tonic  influence  felt  by  the 
moral  consciousness  of  mankind  to-day  is  the  religion 
of  Christ.  Wherever  its  hopes  and  conceptions  pen- 
etrate, a  moral  change  speedily  follows.  Wherever 
they  are  temporarily  or  partially  repudiated,  there  is 
retrogression.  While  Christianity  does  not  demand 
incorporation  in  the  State  as  an  established  religion, 
and  does  not  claim  to  dictate  the  specific  laws  that 
shall  govern  men,  it  does  create  the  spirit  out  of 
which  better  laws  proceed.  We  are  slowly  shaping 
on  this  continent  a  people  who  love  law,  because  it  is 
their  will  to  obey  it,  and  who,  with  power  to  destroy 
it,  are  united  to  preserve  it.  For  a  Christian  people, 
lawmaking  is  the  definition  of  rights  whose  reality 
and  sacredness  are  based  upon  the  exalted  conception 
of  a  person  who  is  at  once  the  brother  of  Christ  and 
the  son  of  God.  Let  this  conception  suffer  a  collapse 
into  a  materialistic  or  dynamic  one,  devoid  of  spiritual 
content,  and  we  shall  find  legislation  reduced  to  a 
mere  conflict  of  interests  and  dominated  at  last  by 
mere  brute  power.  Our  representative  republic  of 
self-governed  persons  is  the  wonder  of  the  world  and 
the  paradox  of  prophecy.  Its  vital  secret  is  the 
Christian  conception  of  man  that  is  assumed  in  its 
Constitution    and   legislation.     If    ever   that    should 


208       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

change  and  cease  to  be  the  controlling  idea  of  our 
national  life,  we  should  realize  what  it  is  so  easy  even 
for  statesmen  to  forget,  that  the  power  of  our  Consti- 
tution is  a  moral  power.  The  chief  source  of  that 
power  is  in  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  ideals  of 
which  are  creating  a  nation  whose  outer  form  shall  be 
a  republic  of  free  men  and  whose  inner  life  shall  be 
the  presence  in  the  soul  of  God's  coming  kingdom. 


VIII, 

CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE   PROBLEMS 
OF   REPRESSION. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE   PROBLEMS  OF 
REPRESSION. 


I.   THE   RIGHT   OF   SOCIETY   TO   PUNISH, 
i.   Two  Theories  of  Punishment. 

2.  Punishment  is  not  ethically  based  on  Retribution. 

3.  Punishment  is  not  ethically  based  on  Utility. 

4.  Punishment  is  ethically  based  on  Repression. 

5.  Effects  of  the  Christian  Conception  of  Punishment. 

II.   THE   NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   CRIME. 

1 .  What  is  Crime  ? 

2.  The  Law  of  Heredity. 

3.  Idleness  and  Poverty. 

4.  Ignorance,  Literary  and  Industrial. 

5.  Intemperance. 

6.  Hopelessness. 

7.  The  Prevention  and  Cure  of  Crime. 

III.    SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSION. 

1.  Summary. 

2.  Conclusion. 


t\     at) 

VIII. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE   PROBLEMS   OF 
REPRESSION. 

I. 

A  law  is  not  simply  a  definition  of  rights  ;  it  carries 
consequences  to  the  law-breaker.  Fine,  imprison- 
ment, and  death  are  the  penalties  attached  to  the 
violation  of  laws.  Without  such  penalties  laws  would 
be  as  inoperative  as  a  popular  vote  that  all  men  should 
be  virtuous.  What  right  has  a  society  of  equals, 
through  its  government,  to  take  from  a  man  his 
money,  his  liberty,  or  his  life,  because  he  has  not 
obeyed  its  commands  ? 

i.  Two  opposite  opinions  have  been  held  by  high 
authorities  in  morals  and  jurisprudence.  Says  Im- 
manuel  Kant  :  "  If  civil  society  should  dissolve  itself 
with  the  consent  of  all  its  members,  the  last  murderer 
who  should  be  found  in  prison  ought  first  to  be  exe- 
cuted, in  order  that  each  might  bear  the  penalty  of 
his  conduct  and  that  the  blood  shed  by  him  might 
not  fall  upon  a  people  who  had  not  inflicted  that 
punishment."  1  This  implies  that  society  possesses  a 
retributive  function.  Romagnosi,  on  the  contrary, 
says  :    "  If  the  right  of  punishment  belongs  to   soci- 

1  Kant,  Metaphysische  Anfangsgriinde  der  Rechtslehre. 


2  12       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

ety,  it  is  only  because  of  its  effects  upon  the  future."  2 
Punishment  is  here  regarded  as  wholly  preventive. 
The  doctrine  of  retribution  looks  only  to  the  past, 
that  of  prevention  only  to  the  future.  Between  them 
is  a  vast  moral  distance  and  the  present  is  left  wholly 
out  of  view.  The  one  bases  penalty  upon  the  moral 
law  and  conceives  society  to  be  its  executive.  The 
other  views  punishment  as  required  by  social  utility, 
without  claiming  a  moral  authority.  Must  we  choose 
between  this  transcendentalism  of  Kant  and  this 
utilitarianism  of  Bentham  ? 

2.  I  have  already,  in  speaking  of  the  relation  be- 
tween religion  and  government,  expressed  dissent 
from  the  doctrine  which  regards  the  State  as  the 
agent  of  religion  and  morality.  Protection  to  religion 
and  morality  the  State  should  grant ;  observance  of 
them  is  beyond  its  power  of  enforcement.  It  cannot 
make  men  morally  good.  Even  the  infliction  of  penalty 
does  not  assume  this.  A  murderer  is  no  better  for 
hanging.  But  does  retributive  power  belong  to  civil 
law  ?  The  moral  law  is  for  the  conscience,  its  rebuke 
is  addressed  to  the  motive,  its  expiation  is  in  remorse, 
its  deliverance  is  in  repentance.  Note  the  contrast 
with  human  enactments.  The  penal  law  is  for  the 
protection  of  rights,  its  rebuke  is  addressed  to  the 
overt  act,  its  expiation  is  in  a  series  of  sensations ; 
there  is  no  deliverance  until  the  sentence  is  fulfilled. 
In  the  view  of  moral  law,  confession  is  a  step  toward 

2  Romagnosi,  Genese  du  Droit  Penal,  vol.  i,  chapitre  xi.  This  is  also  the 
doctrine  of  Bentham,  Introduction  to  the  Principles  of  Morals  and  Legisla- 
tion, chap,  xiii ;  and  of  Beccaria,  Traite  des  Delits  et  des  Peines,  ii. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  REPRESSION.  213 

pardon  ;  in  the  view  of  penal  law,  confession  dooms 
to  punishment.  Of  moral  guilt,  no  other  person  than 
the  offender  can  be  the  judge  ;  of  penal  guilt  another 
must  judge.  Because  moral  law  and  penal  law  are  in 
most  points  different,  and  in  some  antithetical,  penal 
judgment  cannot  be  moral  retribution.  "Vengeance 
is  mine ;  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord,"  is  a  declara- 
tion that  human  punishment,  whether  individual  or 
social,  cannot  claim  a  retributive  element.  The 
Creator  has  not  delegated  to  man  the  difficult,  the 
delicate,  the  impossible  task  of  measuring  and  award- 
ing moral  retribution.  If  he  had,  the  penalty  once 
paid,  the  sin  would  be  expiated,  and  every  released 
prisoner  would  be  an  innocent  man. 

3.  Will  the  theory  that  the  right  to  punish  arises 
from  social  utility  bear  examination  ?  It  may  be 
"useful"  to  society  that  all  criminals  of  every  grade, 
and  paupers  also,  be  carried  out  to  sea  and  thrown 
overboard  into  its  depths.  The  problems  of  crime 
and  pauperism  would  thus  cease  to  vex  the  public 
mind.  Wherein  does  this  solution  fail  ?  It  overlooks 
the  fact  that  even  criminals  are  persons,  endowed 
with  the  rights  of  personality.  Does  social  utility, 
then,  meet  with  no  limitation  ?  May  society,  to  serve 
its  own  social  needs,  justly  deprive  men  of  property 
and  liberty  and  life  ?  There  is  somewhere  a  limit  to 
the  authority  of  social  utility.  Utility  has  the  same 
defect  in  justifying  penalty  that  it  has  as  a  standard 
of  moral  conduct.  It  is  incalculable,  incapable  of 
being  a  criterion.  In  the  sphere  of  punishment, 
utility   has    a    further   difficulty.      The   government 


2  14      SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

practically  identifies  its  own  interest  with  the  interest 
of  society.  In  the  name  of  "utility,"  the  egoism  of 
the  State  crushes  out  the  freedom  of  the  individual. 
A  critic,  an  opponent,  a  recalcitrant,  is  naturally  con- 
templated as  an  enemy,  whose  existence  is  prejudicial 
to  the  interest  of  the  State.  A  democracy  offers  but 
little  relief  from  this  tendency  to  official  outrage. 
The  tyranny  of  a  multitude  is  even  more  fierce  and 
pitiless  than  the  tyranny  of  one  man.  The  interest 
of  society,  as  conceived  by  itself,  at  one  time  prepares 
the  guillotine  for  a  Louis,  at  another,  and  sometimes 
soon,  it  prepares  the  same  instrument  for  a  Robes- 
pierre. If  no  good  man  had  ever  been  a  martyr  to 
public  utility,  the  emptiness  of  it  as  a  justification 
of  punishment  might  be  less  apparent ;  but  from 
Socrates  to  Christ,  from  Christ  to  Savonarola,  from 
Savonarola  to  the  latest  victim  of  mob  violence,  the 
long  line  of  martyrs  rise  to  refute  the  maxim,  "The 
voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God."  Not  for  his 
own  interest,  not  for  society's  interest,  not  for  mere 
interest  of  any  kind,  may  another  justly  take  away 
my  life. 

4.  What,  then,  justifies  the  infliction  of  punish- 
ment ?  Retribution  assumes  too  much,  utility,  too 
little.  The  union  of  the  two  will  possess  no  incre- 
ment of  gain.  And  yet  there  is  a  basis,  and  it  must 
be  a  moral  basis,  for  this  highest  of  social  functions. 
So  long  as  one  of  its  members  uses  his  powers  for 
their  natural  ends,  without  interference  with  others, 
society  cannot  punish  him  for  his  sins  or  bend  him  to 
its  fancied  utilities.     The  frontier  of  my  personality 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  REPRESSION.  215 

must  be  safe  from  invasion,  or  my  right  to  cross  the 
boundaries  of  another's  right  cannot  be  questioned. 
But  the  duty  of  society  to  protect  rights  carries  with 
it  the  authority  to  repress  the  invasion  of  rights.  The 
right  of  restraint,  the  right  of  commanding  the  peace, 
this  is  the  moral  basis  of  the  right  of  society  to 
punish.  As  Jourdan  says  :  "  So  far  as  it  supposes  a 
superior  judge  and  an  infallible  justice,  the  right  of 
punishment  does  not  exist  ;  human  justice  is  not  a 
delegation  of  divine  justice  ;  it  overleaps  itself  when 
it  attempts  to  punish,  it  simply  represses.  The  right 
to  punish  is  simply  the  legitimate  faculty  of  exercising 
upon  that  one  who  has  violated  right  a  restraint 
whose  object  is  to  impose  on  him  respect  for  right 
by  force  ;  it  has  its  only  and  true  foundation  in  the 
superior  notion  of  right,  without  which  society  is  only 
a  material  fact,  destitute  of  all  morality."3  The 
supposition  that  God  has  delegated  a  retributive 
power  to  man  is  a  tradition  that  has  descended  from 
that  theocratic  age  when  God  was  believed  to  govern 
through  men  directly,  because  he  inspired  their  judg- 
ments and  their  acts.  The  idea  that  social  utility 
justifies  punishment  is  a  subterfuge  of  that  unethical 
and  materialistic  philosophy  that  has  taxed  its  inge- 
nuity to  justify  the  necessary  processes  of  a  moral 
order  while  theoretically  denying  the  existence  of 
moral  beings.  That  human  punishment  is  simply 
forcible  restraint  from  wrong-doing  is  a  moral  con- 
ception that  follows  by  logical  necessity  from  the 
Christian  idea  of  men  as  moral  persons.     The  hand 

3  Jourdan,  La  Justice  Criminelle  en  France,  titre  i,  chapitre  i. 


2l6       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

that  inflicts  injury  must  repair  the  injury;  the  life 
that  destroys  other  life  must  surrender  itself.  If 
punishment  were  expiation,  the  hand  that  robbed 
would  be  a  guiltless  hand  when  it  had  restored  ;  the 
life  that  had  slain  its  fellow-life  would  be  stainless 
when  the  fatal  drop  had  fallen  from  the  scaffold. 
But  the  robber  and  the  murderer  have  still  their 
unsettled  accounts  with  God.  To  be  restrained  from 
crime  by  a  penalty  that  will  henceforth  destroy  its 
motive  in  one's  self,  a  criminal  himself  might  feel  is 
just ;  but  it  would  fill  one  with  the  emotions  of  a 
martyr  to  hear  the  judge  say,  in  the  words  once  used 
to  an  English  horse-thief :  "  You  are  sentenced  to 
be  hanged,  not  because  you  stole  the  horse,  but  in 
order  to  prevent  others  from  stealing  horses  "  ! 

5.  It  is  the  Christian  conception  of  punishment, 
growing  out  of  the  Christian  conception  of  person- 
ality, that  has  transformed  the  penal  statutes  of  the 
civilized  world  and  modified  the  whole  treatment  of 
criminals.  Our  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors  administered 
an  heroic  justice.  Besides  death,  fines,  and  flogging, 
mutilation  was  a  common  punishment ;  men  were 
branded  on  the  forehead ;  their  hands,  feet,  and 
tongues  were  cut  off ;  and  after  the  Danish  invasion 
still  more  horrible  mutilations  were  practised.  For 
the  greater  offences  eyes  were  plucked  out ;  the  nose, 
ears,  and  lips  were  cut  off ;  the  scalp  was  torn  away ; 
a  female  slave  guilty  of  theft  was  burned  alive  ;  and 
men  were  even  flayed  alive.  One  of  Ethelred's  stern 
statutes  read  :  "  Let  the  culprit  be  smitten  till  his 
neck  break."     Besides  these  horrors,  too  painful  for 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   REPRESSION. 


2  17 


extended  recital,  the  prison  outrages  against  which 
John  Howard  directed  his  crusade  were  tender  mer- 
cies. But  now  the  whole  picture  of  judicial  bar- 
barity, with  the  debtor's  prison,  the  whipping-post, 
and  the  other  paraphernalia  of  savagery  has  ceased 
to  haunt  us  as  reality,  and  is  but  a  gloomy  chapter  in 
the  history  of  moral  evolution.  The  pendulum  has 
swung  to  the  other  side  of  its  arc,  and  now  that  we 
have  "  those  excellent  model  prisons  which  leave 
little  to  be  desired  in  construction  and  in  the  comfort 
of  the  inmates,  and  many  of  which  under  humane 
management  soften  the  rigors  of  imprisonment  by 
means  of  libraries,  entertaining  lectures  and  readings, 
concerts,  holidays,  anniversary  dinners,  flowers,  and 
marks  for  obedience  to  rules,  which  shorten  the  term 
of  confinement,"  it  is  seriously  asked:  "Do  these 
reformed  prisons  reform  ? "  They  certainly  do  not 
annihilate  crime,  but  they  treat  men  and  women  like 
human  beings,  and  thus  in  many  cases  doubtless  give 
the  first  impressions  that  they  are  such  which  these 
unfortunates  have  ever  received.  If  society  can 
teach  a  portion  of  its  culprits  that  the  humanity  they 
are  required  to  respect  is  in  them  also,  if  it  can  create 
in  them  the  Christian  conception  of  personality  by 
disclosing  it  within  themselves,  a  great  and  fruitful 
advance  has,  no  doubt,  been  made.  If  you  take  the 
criminal  young  enough,  before  he  has  become  hard- 
ened, before  impulse  has  settled  into  habit  and  habit 
has  condensed  into  character,  he  is  capable  of  refor- 
mation. The  thirty-four  reformatories  in  the  United 
States  have  received  nearly  one  hundred  thousand 


2l8       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

boys  and  girls,  and  of  these,  three  fourths,  or  about 
seventy  thousand,  are  reported  as  reformed,  at  a  cost 
of  $150  each  per  annum. 

II. 

If  crime  is  not  an  indestructible  necessity,  the 
question  of  its  repression  points  to  the  study  of  its 
natural  history. 

1.  What  is  crime  ?  Morality  and  legislation  give 
different  answers.  For  morality,  what  is  a  crime  to- 
day is  a  crime  forever.  For  legislation,  the  crime  of 
yesterday  may  be  the  virtue  of  to-morrow.  The  law 
of  God  is  unchangeable.  The  law  of  the  State  is 
variable.  The  reformer  may  be  regarded  as  a  crimi- 
nal by  the  State,  but  the  heresy  or  treason  which  is 
punished  as  a  crime  to-day  becomes  the  rallying-cry 
or  the  constitutional  right  of  the  next  generation. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  virtues  of  primitive  man  are 
the  legal  crimes  of  to-day.  The  craft  and  cruelty, 
the  murder  and  plunder  that  made  him  a  hero  and  a 
chief  are  now  punishable  crimes  upon  the  statute- 
books  of  every  civilized  land.  In  the  eye  of  the  law 
that  is  a  crime  which  the  law  prohibits,  and  nothing 
else  is.  But  law  aims  to  prohibit  that  which,  in  the 
estimation  of  each  age,  is  an  infringement  of  recog- 
nized rights. 

The  first  cause  of  crime  is  evidently  an  untrained 
animal  instinct,  the  survival  of  a  tendency  to  disre- 
gard rights  and  behave  as  if  they  were  not.  Whence 
comes  this  ?  In  one  sense  crime  is  simply  action  out 
of   harmony  with    the    environments,  last    century's 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  REPRESSION.  219 

practice  running  wild  in  this,  an  ancestral  habit  that 
persists  in  spite  of  social  advancement.  Pike,  in  his 
"History  of  Crime,"  gives  this  example:  "Cruelty 
is  one  of  the  most  strongly  marked  characteristics 
of  the  savage.  To  inflict  torture  is  one  of  his  great- 
est delights.  As  soon  as  he  makes  a  little  progress 
his  previous  tendencies  show  themselves  in  the  hor- 
rible ferocity  of  his  punishments  for  criminals.  In 
the  course  of  ages  man  becomes  gradually  more  mer- 
ciful. He  ceases  to  mutilate,  and  even  to  torture, 
his  fellows.  He  puts  off  his  savage  nature  more  and 
more,  and  learns  to  pride  himself  on  his  civilization  ; 
he  perceives  that  even  the  inferior  animals  may 
suffer ;  and,  as  suffering  has  become  associated  with 
compassion,  he  extends  his  sympathy  to  all  that 
feel."4  At  last  we  reach  a  point  where  even  brutes 
are  protected,  some  sympathetic  Bergh  leading  legis- 
lation to  the  rescue  of  unhappy  horses  and  canine 
waifs.  "  Naturalists  of  the  modern  school  point  out 
primitive  organisms  which  still  survive  in  their  origi- 
nal form,  though  new  species  may  have  developed 
out  of  them.  In  the  same  manner  there  are  savages 
still  living  among  us  of  the  same  blood  and  origin  as 
ourselves  and  yet  unlike  us  in  all  except  in  our  com- 
mon ancestry."  5  The  idea  that  each  individual  lives 
over  in  rude  outline  the  history  of  his  race  also  finds 
application  here.  "The  young- human  being,  in  the 
process,  of  attaining  the  full  maturity  of  his  animal 
powers,  has  a  strong  tendency  to  exhibit  in   action 

4  Pike's  History  of  Crime  in  England,  vol.  ii,  chap.  xiii. 
0  Pike,  op.  cit. 


2  20        SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

the  lawless  and  cruel  instincts  of  his  savage  ances- 
tors. A  healthy  boy  has  a  pugnacity  and  a  love  of 
destruction  which  not  uncommonly  assume  the  form 
of  cruelty.  It  is  difficult  to  teach  him  honesty  with 
respect  to  many  things  he  covets.  Just  like  the  sav- 
age who  has  advanced  one  stage,  he  makes  a  slave 
of  a  younger  or  weaker  boy.  In  him  the  partisan- 
ship of  family,  tribe,  guild,  or  clan  is  intensely  strong 
and,  as  he  reaches  adolescence,  shows  itself  in  such 
rough  shapes  as  the  apprentice  riots  of  old  in  London, 
or  the  town  and  gown  combats  and  '  rushes  '  of  mod- 
ern times  at  the  universities."6 

2.  Thus  the  jurist  as  well  as  the  theologian  must 
take  account  of  the  great  law  of  heredity  that  links 
us  with  the  ancestral  past  and  forces  through  our 
veins  the  dark  current  of  sin  that  is  not  original  with 
us,  but  flows  from  that  primal  fount  which  is  sin's 
first  original.  And  yet  we  must  not  empty  the  whole 
cup  of  guilt  upon  this  stream  of  heredity.  In  his 
visit  to  that  "cradle  of  crime,"  the  home  of  the  crimi- 
nal clan,  the  "Jukes,"  in  New  York  State,  Robert 
Dugdale  discovered  a  nest  of  thieves,  felons,  and 
prostitutes,  the  picture  of  which  produces  a  shudder 
in  the  mind  of  one  who  recalls  it.7  He  has  traced 
the  growth  of  that  family  in  a  genealogical  tree, 
whose  roots  reach  back  to  the  shameless  Margaret, 
the  "  mother  of  crime,"  —  truly  a  tree  of  the  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil,  whose  fruits  have  been  disease  and 
death,  —  and  yet  upon  that  sin-blasted  and  withered 

o  Pike,  op.  cit. 

7  See  The  Jukes,  by  R.  L.  Dugdale. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  REPRESSION.  22  1 

tree  there  are  branches  of  "  honesty,"  "  industry,"  and 
"temperance  "  that  are  even  more  startling,  when  we 
consider  their  origin,  than  those  scions  of  shame  with 
which  they  are  intertwined  in  the  close  embrace  of 
brotherhood.  The  percentage  of  criminals  in  that 
fated  family  is  appalling,  but  here  and  there  a  respect- 
able man  rises  as  a  protest  against  that  fanaticism  of 
fatality  that  would  always  look  behind  the  sinner  for 
his  sin.  When  a  "Juke  "  can  become  respectable  it 
seems  insolent  in  us  to  speak  reproachfully  of  that 
unfortunate  Adam,  or  these  ancestral  savages,  whose 
posterity  have  too  often  striven  to  conceal  their  guilt 
under  the  credentials  of  their  lineage.  A  note  of 
necessity  seems,  however,  to  lie  in  this,  that  nearly  all 
the  crime  that  is  committed  is  done  by  persons  from 
twenty-five  to  forty-five  years  old,  marking  this  period 
of  twenty  years,  as  what  jurists  call  "the  criminal 
age."  But  the  volitional  element  in  crime  becomes 
evident  the  moment  we  consider  that  this  maturity 
marks  a  voluntary  progress  requiring  years  to  develop 
into  a  life  of  crime,  and  that  between  the  cradle  and 
adolescence  lies  that  golden  age  cf  innocence,  when 
children,  though  born  of  criminal  parents  and  with 
all  their  hereditary  savagery  strong  within  them,  have 
not  yet  become  the  devotees  of  crime.  From  thirty- 
five  on  to  the  end  of  life  the  proportion  of  crime  grad- 
ually diminishes,  and  but  seven  per  cent,  is  committed 
by  persons  over  sixty-five  years  of  age.  Is  it  because 
it  is  found  that  "the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard," 
or  is  it  that  "  the  wages  of  sin  is  death  "  ? 
(jj     3.   "The  tendency  to  commit  the  great  majority 


222       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

of  the  acts  which  are  now  commonly  described  as 
crimes,  and  especially  crimes  of  violence,  is  at  its 
greatest  strength  just  before,  and  at  the  time  when, 
the  human  being  attains  the  full  development  of  his 
physical  powers."  8  What  is  it  that  transforms  the 
golden  age  of  innocence,  the  period  in  which  the 
child  is  incapable  of  crime,  into  that  career  of  crim- 
inality that  reaches  its  climax  just  when  volition 
and  intelligence  are  the  best  developed  ?  I  know 
of  no  deeper  psychological  truth  than  that  expressed 
in  the  old  proverb :  "  An  idle  brain  is  the  devil's 
workshop."  Statistics  show  that  eighty  per  cent, 
of  the  convicted  criminals  never  learned  a  trade. 
It  is  estimated  that  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the 
street-begging  is  done  by  and  for  those  who  could 
earn  their  living  if  they  were  industrious.  The  first 
school  of  crime  is  mendicancy.  Little  children  are 
pressed  into  it,  and  from  beggars  lapse  into  thieves. 
The  crimes  against  property  are  nearly  ninety  per 
cent,  of  the  whole  number,  which  reveals  the  rela- 
tion between  crime  and  pauperism.  The  spontane- 
ous activity  of  a  child  is  capable  of  direction,  but 
will  find  its  field  in  crime  if  not  addressed  to  indus- 
try. The  occupied  have  little  time  to  plan  and 
execute  wrong,  and  the  fruits  of  honest  labor  re- 
move the  temptation  to  commit  it.  Idleness  and 
poverty  are  inseparably  connected,  and  the  criminal 
class  is  constantly  recruited  from  the  pauper  class 
at  every  stage  of  its  development.  The  possession 
of    property    transforms    the    owner,    develops    his 

s  Pike,  op.  cit. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  REPRESSION.  223 

sense  of  justice,  creates  in  him  respect  for  rights 
by  reminding  him  that  he  himself  has  them,  and 
renders  him  responsible  for  his  conduct.  I  heard 
Fred  Douglass  say  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  only  hope 
of  the  enfranchised  American  negroes  lies  in  their 
becoming  property  owners.  A  careful  inspection 
of  prisons  shows  that  the  most  of  their  inmates 
have  never  owned  property.  It  was  a  Jewish  prov- 
erb that  "  Whosoever  does  not  teach  his  son  a  trade 
is  as  if  he  brought  him  up  to  be  a  robber."  With 
all  their  defections,  the  sons  of  Israel  have  seldom 
been  criminals.  The  mere  tradition  of  industry  has 
barred  the  path  to  the  prison. 

4.  I  am  doubtful  whether  poverty  is  the  greater 
cause  of  ignorance  or  ignorance  the  greater  cause 
of  poverty.  Like  disease  and  death,  they  seem  to 
produce  each  other  by  a  reciprocal  infection.  Of 
the  ten  thousand  inmates  of  the  almshouses  in  New 
York,  thirty-two  per  cent,  could  neither  read  nor 
write  ;  only  twenty-four  per  cent,  could  both  read  and 
write.  But  the  connection  of  ignorance  and  crime 
is  not  so  close  as  that  of  ignorance  and  poverty. 
It  is  mainly  through  poverty  that  ignorance  affects 
the  increase  of  criminals.  Only  about  twenty  per 
cent,  of  the  prisoners  in  the  Eastern  Penitentiary 
in  Pennsylvania  had  never  attended  school.  The 
worst  grades  of  criminals  show  about  this  average. 
But  the  percentage  of  criminals  who  have  never 
learned  a  trade  is  four  times  as  high  as  the  percent- 
age of  those  who  have  never  been  to  school. 
Nearly  one  half   of   the  prisoners   just   referred    to 


2  24       SOCIAL  INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

were  children  of  mechanics,  honest  men,  who  had 
failed  to  give  their  offspring  a  means  of  earning  a 
livelihood.  It  is  not  literary  ignorance  that  makes 
criminals.  The  education  of  the  schools,  if  it  does 
not  shape  those  who  receive  it  in  right  ways,  renders 
them  more  efficient  and  skilful  in  crime,  more  able 
to  avoid  detection  or  to  effect  escape  from  justice, 
but  constitutes  no  preventive  check  on  the  augmen- 
tation of  the  criminal  class.  It  is  the  moral  and 
religious  element  in  school-training  that  curbs  the 
criminal  tendencies  and  so  prevents  the  birth  of 
crime  in  the  learner.  It  is  this  element  that  a  large 
number  of  our  modern  theorists  are  striving  vigor- 
ously to  drive  from  our  public  schools. 

5.  The  darkest  lines  in  this  sombre  picture  of  the 
natural  history  of  crime  are  those  in  which  we  trace 
the  effects  of  intemperance.  No  one  can  touch  this 
topic  without  being  exposed  to  one  of  two  dangers : 
one  of  shrinking  from  a  theme  so  travestied  because 
it  is  so  hackneyed  ;  the  other  of  joining  in  the 
intemperate  zeal  which  would  banish  even  from 
the  holy  communion  the  wine  that  symbolizes  the 
warming  life  of  atoning  blood,  which  refers  all  sin 
to  intoxicants,  and  makes  their  use  the  one  scape- 
goat vice  whose  banishment  is  to  bear  all  human 
guilt  into  the  wilderness  of  oblivion.  I  do  not 
understand  how  a  distinguished  English  baronet 
could  write  a  learned  book  on  the  "  The  Punishment 
and  Prevention  of  Crime  "  9  and  never  once  refer  to 
intemperance  as  a  cause,  or  temperance  reform  as 

'■>  The  Punishment  and  Prevention  of  Crime,  by  Sir  Edmund  F.  Du  Cane. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  REPRESSION.  225 

a  cure,  of  the  disease  whose  pathology  he  describes. 
Nor  do  I  see  how  a  sane  man  can  imagine  that,  if 
all  intoxicants  were  swept  from  the  earth  to-day, 
there  would  be  no  crime  in  the  world  to-morrow. 
More  than  two  centuries  ago,  a  calm  jurist  of  vast 
experience,  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  said  :  "  If  the  mur- 
ders and  manslaughters,  the  burglaries  and  robberies, 
the  riots  and  tumults  .  .  .  and  other  enormities  that 
have  happened  in  my  time  were  divided  into  five 
classes,  four  of  them  would  be  seen  to  have  been 
the  issue  and  product  of  excessive  drinking,  of 
tavern  and  alehouse  drinking."  10  Carefully  collated 
statistics  show  that  from  eighty  to  ninety  per  cent, 
of  the  crimes  committed  still  have  some  connection 
with  intemperate  drinking.  The  indictment  against 
intoxicants  is  strong  enough,  without  incurring  the 
charge  of  fanaticism  and  the  humiliation  of  refuta- 
tion, to  justify  the  sober  assertion  that  the  traffic 
that  makes  drunkards  is  responsible  for  four  fifths 
of  the  crime  committed  in  civilized  lands,  and  should 
be  made  to  bear  its  burdens.  Should  be  made  to 
bear  its  burdens,  did  I  say  ?  Nay,  should  be  pro- 
hibited from  its  work  of  wreck  and  ruin.  That  the 
right  of  society  to  repress  crime  justifies  the  re- 
pression of  crime's  most  prolific  cause  is  too  axio- 
matic to  require  discussion. 

6.  But  there  is  working  in  the  nature  of  man  a 
deeper  and  more  subtle  power  of  destruction  than 
lies  concealed  in  the  drunkard's  cup.  It  is  the  cause 
of  which  recourse  to   inebriation   is   but   one   of  the 

111  Quoted  by  A.  J.  F.  Behrends,  Socialism  and  Christianity,  chap.  ix. 


2  26       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

effects.  Why  does  a  man  seek  the  stupor  or  the 
exhilaration  of  intoxication  ?  Is  it  not  usually  a 
desolation  of  spirit,  a  hopelessness  of  heart,  that 
finds  the  customary  level  of  life  dreary,  and  the 
future  as  empty  as  the  present  ?  Some  study  of  the 
psychology  of  inebriety  has  convinced  me  that, 
apart  from  physical  disease,  despair  of  life,  tem- 
porary or  permanent,  is  the  secret  cause  of  drunken- 
ness. It  is  the  condition  of  those  "who  are  strangers 
from  the  covenants  of  promise,  having  no  hope,  and 
without  God  in  the  world."  If  pessimism  is  possible 
as  a  philosophy,  how  common  and  how  potent  it 
must  be  as  an  impulse !  It  is  a  perilous  state  when 
one  considers  life  as  chaff  and  emptiness.  Disap- 
pointment, bereavement,  and  loss  often  induce  this 
feeling.  He  who  acts  in  such  a  mood,  unrestrained 
by  the  bonds  of  a  holy  faith,  or  a  fixed  habit  of 
caution,  or  a  governing  principle  of  rectitude,  is  in 
danger  of  falling  into  crime.  Its  deepest  cause  is 
moral  recklessness,  resulting  from  an  unsatisfied 
spirit. 

7.  If  we  seek  the  means  of  preventing  and  curing 
crime,  we  think  at  once  of  industrial  occupation, 
education,  and  temperance  —  the  world's  remedies. 
They  are  only  antidotes  for  symptoms,  not  cures  of 
the  disease,  or  even  sure  preventives  of  it.  What  is 
to  make  men  industrious,  intelligent,  and  temperate  ? 
To  what  end  is  industry,  if  all  terminates  in  dust  and 
ashes  ?  To  what  purpose  is  intelligence,  if  it  simply 
increases  our  knowledge  of  the  evil  in  the  world  ? 
Why  should  a  man  be  sober,  if  his  powers  are  all  to 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  REPRESSION.  227 

crumble  to  decay  to-morrow  ?  A  flippant  optimism 
may  laugh  at  these  questions  and  ridicule  them  as 
foolish,  but  a  flippant  optimist  is  likely  to  be  too 
superficial  to  assume  the  role  of  ridicule  with  impun- 
ity. If  certain  current  ideas,  philosophic  and  popu- 
lar, of  the  nature  and  destiny  of  man  are  true,  these 
are  not  only  serious  but  forcible  questions.  On  that 
supposition,  I  doubt  if  they  can  be  answered  with 
any  stronger  argument  than  ridicule.  Whence  comes 
the  motive  to  be  industrious,  intelligent,  and  temper- 
ate ?  There  is  a  philosophy  of  life  that  would  make 
all  men  criminals  at  heart,  only  waiting  for  the 
opportunity  of  action,  if  it  were  universally  accepted. 
The  true  source  of  the  motives  that  make  men  indus- 
trious, intelligent  in  any  desirable  sense,  and  temperate 
in  their  habits,  is  the  conception  and  estimate  of  man 
presented  by  Christianity.  I  do  not  say  that  there 
are  no  men  who  possess  virtues,  who  have  not  built 
them  on  this  conception,  because  I  recognize  the  fact 
that  much  of  what  passes  for  human  virtue  is  compli- 
ance with  social  custom,  the  fruit  of  long-continued 
habit  and  of  imitation.  Much  of  our  life  is  instinc- 
tive and  automatic.  There  is  a  heredity  of  good,  as 
well  as  a  heredity  of  evil.  What  I  mean  to  assert  is 
that  when  the  impulse  to  crime  arises,  its  restraint, 
apart  from  mere  fear,  is  found  in  some  motive  that 
springs  out  of  the  conception  of  man  which  is  most 
distinctly  taught  by  Jesus  Christ.  Others  have,  in 
part,  held  that  conception,  even  before  his  day,  and 
many  since,  without  connecting  it  with  a  thought  of 
him  ;  but  it  is,  nevertheless,  his  idea  of  man.     The 


2  28       SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

natural  history  of  crime  is  simply  this  :  "  Every  man 
is  tempted,  when  he  is  drawn  away  of  his  own  lust 
and  enticed.  Then,  when  lust  hath  conceived,  it 
bringeth  forth  sin  ;  and  sin,  when  it  is  finished,  bring- 
eth  forth  death."  The  only  power  that  can  arrest 
that  process,  when  it  is  begun,  is  the  picture,  in  the 
soul,  of  man  as  Christ  has  portrayed  him.  Sometimes 
that  sense  of  what  we  are,  and  what  Christ's  ideal  is, 
flashes  upon  the  mind  as  the  blinding  light  that  smote 
Saul  to  the  earth  when  he  rode  to  Damascus,  sometimes 
it  dawns  as  gently  as  the  breaking  of  morning  light 
upon  the  hilltops.  Until  it  comes,  the  possibility  of 
crime  is  an  open  pathway  that  needs  only  the  suffi- 
cient enticement  at  its  end  to  lure  the  footsteps  into 
it.  This  is  no  mysticism  that  I  am  uttering.  It  is 
the  plain  truth  that,  without  a  right  conception 
of  man  and  his  relations  to  God,  it  is  merely  an  acci- 
dent if  one  is  not  a  criminal.  But  many  men  have 
this  and  yet  some  of  them  are  led  to  crime.  There 
is  needed  one  other  security,  the  disposition  to  realize 
this  high  conception.  The  diathesis  of  moral  disease 
must  be  superseded  by  the  thrill  of  spiritual  life. 
This  is  God's  gift.  "  Ye  will  not  come  unto  me,  that 
ye  might  have  life,"  said  Christ.  Christianity  teaches 
that  the  final  preventive  and  cure  of  human  sin  is  in 
the  regeneration  of  men  through  Christ  as  a  Saviour. 
The  world  is  striving  to  solve  the  problem  of  human 
sinfulness,  which  is  the  fountain  of  human  crime,  by 
work  and  knowledge  and  temperance.  It  will  fail. 
Its  psychology  is  superficial.  Like  a  physician  who 
represses  symptoms  and  allows  the  disease  to   result 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   REPRESSION.  229 

in    death,    it    works    upon    the     surface    and    leaves 

untouched  the  secret  cause  of  crime.     The  mission  of 

the  Church  is  to  apply  the  method    of   the   world's 

Saviour  and  to  cleanse  the  stream  by  the  purification 

of  the  fountain.     Evangelical  work  goes  deeper  than 

all  humanitarian  reforms  and  looks  for  the  reformation 

of    the  outward  life  through  the  renovation   of    the 

heart. 

III. 

1.  We  have  now  examined  the  relation  of  Christi- 
anity to  the  leading  problems  of  society.  We  have 
found  everywhere  Christ's  conception  of  man  throwing 
light  upon  these  problems.  If  the  laborer  has  rights, 
it  is  because  he  is  endowed  with  personality.  If  the 
distribution  of  wealth  is  possible  upon  other  grounds 
than  the  rule  of  the  strongest,  it  is  because  these 
personal  rights  radiate  outward  from  the  man  and 
project  themselves  in  the  sphere  of  property.  If 
marriage  and  the  family  are  to  be  preserved  to  soci- 
ety, it  is  through  the  recognition  of  personal  rights  in 
the  domestic  circle.  If  education  is  to  receive  its 
perfection  in  the  complete  unfolding  of  human 
powers,  the  spiritual  and  moral  nature  of  man  must 
be  regarded.  If  legislation  is  to  embody  justice  and 
realize  liberty,  it  must  postulate  the  doctrine  of  per- 
sonal freedom  and  of  rights  and  duties  as  the  ground 
of  freedom.  Finally,  if  crime  is  to  be  repressed  and 
extirpated,  the  moral  regeneration  of  men  must  be 
accepted  as  possible  and  the  universal  reign  of 
mechanical  necessity  must  be  denied. 

2.  The  relation  of  Christianity  to  these  problems  is 


23O        SOCIAL   INFLUENCE    OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

briefly  this  :  it  carries  the  master-key  that  unlocks 
every  one  of  them  ;  that  master-key  is  Christ's  con- 
ception of  man.  I  bring  the  question  to  this  issue  : 
let  what  Christ  has  taught  of  man's  nature  and  des- 
tiny be  denied  ;  let  the  mind  picture  society  as  an 
organism  whose  constituents  are  impersonal  automata, 
mechanical  products  of  matter  and  its  forces,  infinitely 
complex,  but  still  governed  by  the  law  of  physical 
fatality  ;  let  the  fact  of  personality  be  rejected  and 
the  reality  of  inherent  rights  be  contradicted ;  and  I 
affirm  that,  when  men  universally  believe  this,  social 
order  will  have  no  existence,  the  physically  weaker 
will  go  down  in  the  struggle  for  life  under  the  remorse- 
less competition  of  the  stronger,  and  the  human  race 
will  be  plunged  into  a  general  pandemonium.  Every 
disruption  of  social  order  that  has  lately  startled  the 
fears  of  men  has  originated  from  some  phase  of  this 
chain  of  assumptions.  On  the  other  hand,  let  all  that 
Christ  has  taught  be  admitted  ;  let  it  be  assumed  that 
each  personal  being  is  endowed  with  inherent  rights 
and  immortal  life  ;  let  it  be  conceded  that  the 
human  brotherhood  is  linked  together  under  the  laws 
of  a  moral  order  and  the  providence  of  a  beneficent 
Father  ;  —  and  an  ideal  state  will  be  realized  among 
men.  In  the  light  of  that  contrast,  I  venture  the 
assertion  that,  if  ever  an  ideal  order  is  realized  by 
humanity,  it  will  be  under  the  leadership  of  the 
Christian  conception  of  man  and  will  require  that  for 
its  basis.  The  current  agitation  of  mind  over  social 
questions  is  the  best  token  that  the  hearts  and  con- 
sciences of  men  are  stirred  as  they  never  have  been 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   REPRESSION.  2$  I 

stirred  before  ;  and  it  requires  little  insight  to  discover 
that  the  postulates  underlying  the  discussion  of  social 
problems  and  the  hopes  of  social  amelioration  are 
derived  from  the  teachings  of  Christ,  however  illogi- 
cal and  grotesque  some  of  their  applications  may  seem 
to  be.  Christus  Redemptor  has,  with  atoning  sacri- 
fice, brought  forgiveness  of  sin  to  the  great  company 
of  the  redeemed.  Christus  Consolator  has  stanched 
the  tears  of  the  world's  sorrow  and  filled  the  hearts  of 
the  afflicted  and  the  wronged  with  immortal  hope. 
Christus  Consummator  will  establish  the  kingdom  of 
God  in  the  hearts  of  men  and  transform  human  soci- 
ety at  last  into  an  order  of  final  perfection.  And  you 
of  this  noble  School  of  the  Prophets,  soon  to  go  forth 
as  heralds  of  that  coming  kingdom,  have  a  work  more 
vital  to  the  progress  of  social  regeneration  than  that 
of  any  economist  or  jurist  or  social  reformer  of  your 
time.  Your  part  may  seem  humble  and  your  reward 
not  very  great,  but  it  will  not  be  so  in  the  final  esti- 
mate of  eternal  values,  "  for  all  things  are  yours,  .  .  . 
whether  the  world,  or  life,  or  death,  or  things  present, 
or  things  to  come  ;  all  are  yours  ;  and  ye  are  Christ's  > 
and  Christ  is  God's." 


THE    END. 


Date  Due 


,  ftfoPtfggg 


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